A 28-year-old homemaker and her two-year-old daughter from Nadia’s Chapra were found dead near their neighbour’s courtyard early on Friday, a day after they went missing from home.

Police sources said prima facie it appeared that Mamtaj Mandal and her daughter Muskan had been murdered for the latter’s gold chain.

“The bodies bore strangulation marks. We have sent the bodies for post-mortem," said an officer from Chapra police station.

The discovery of the two bodies sparked tension in Chapra’s Gachha locality during the day, with neighbours ransacking accused Tahara Mondal’s home.

Tahara and her family have reportedly absconded.

“Residents refused to hand over the body to the police, accusing them of negligence despite a formal police complaint lodged by Mamtaj’s husband, Najmul Mandal, against Tahara, late on Thursday itself (when the bodies had not been found),” said an eyewitness.

Najmul, a farmer, had begun searching for his wife and daughter on Thursday evening after he returned home from work and found them missing.

“I came to know that my wife went to our neighbour Tahara’s home after I had left for work (in the morning),” he said, adding that Tahara had been “visibly interested” in the gold chain that Najmul had recently bought for his daughter.

“She had been eyeing it and asking about it for weeks, which has convinced me that they were trapped and killed for the gold chain,” Najmul added.

Residents of the area said Najmul was “ridiculed” when he went to the local police station citing his suspicion about the involvement of his neighbour behind his wife and daughter going missing.

“The police should have begun their investigations much earlier. Instead, they initially ignored our pleas to start a probe,” added Saheb, Mamtaj’s brother.

A police team had interrogated Tahara late on Thursday, and residents sustained a night-long search in the area for the missing Mamtaj and Muskan.

Early on Friday, both their bodies were recovered from a bush adjacent to Tahara's courtyard.

Asked, local police sources denied any negligence on their part in investigating the case.

“We had begun our interrogations immediately to ascertain the cause of the disappearance of the woman and child,” said a police officer.