A house painter has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of a woman whose severed head was found in a garbage dump in a residential neighbourhood near Tollygunge on Friday morning.

The remaining body parts were found on Saturday evening.

Police identified the woman as Khatija Bibi, 45, from Magrahat in South 24- Parganas.

The accused, Atiur Laskar, a house painter, was arrested in Diamond Harbour on Saturday after his “suspicious movement” was spotted on a CCTV camera installed in a temple close to the spot where the woman’s head was found, the police said.

The accused is the victim’s brother-in-law.

He was arrested after verifying his mobile phone’s tower location that matched the coordinates of the place where the head was dumped.

Khatija used to work as a domestic help in multiple places in Regent Park. Laskar brought her to Calcutta for work, the police said.

The cops said Laskar was trying to pursue the victim for a relationship but she had blocked his number a few days ago.

“The accused was pursuing the victim. The accused works as a house painter in the Regent Park area. The victim worked as a domestic help in the same area. On Thursday, they came to Calcutta together,” said deputy commissioner (south suburban division) Bidisha Kalita.

The woman did not return home after that. Laskar went home and pretended to join the search when the family reported Khatija missing.

Her severed head was found wrapped in a transparent polythene bag amid garbage behind a highrise central government quarter on Graham Road on Friday morning.

The post-mortem of the head suggested the injuries were homicidal. A sniffer dog was brought to the spot that led the cops to an apartment a few metres away.

The police said during their investigation, they found that the man who was spotted moving suspiciously near the spot where the head was found had earlier worked as a painter in the apartment where the dog took the cops.

The man was later identified as Laskar. A search was launched for him and he was detained in Diamond Harbour on Friday evening. He was arrested on Saturday.

The police said Laskar confessed his crime. Based on his statement, the cops recovered the woman’s body parts from a deserted area in Regent
Colony.

Being a house painter, Laskar had access to gunny bags, which he used to stuff the woman’s body parts.

The murder weapon is yet to recovered, the police said.