The body of a woman with her throat slit was found under a bed in her own house in a colony area near the Lords Bakery crossing on Wednesday evening, police said.

Nafisa Khatoon, in her early 40s, worked in a cafeteria in a shopping mall in south Calcutta and did not report to work on Wednesday, the police said.

Her mother, Khehrun Nisa, also a working woman, returned to their ground-floor apartment at 1/30 Rajendra Prasad Colony on Wednesday evening and found the main gate latched from outside.

“When the mother returned home, she found the main gate latched from outside. She said calls to her daughter’s phone were going unattended. On entering the apartment she saw blood flowing out from under the bed. She found her daughter lying under the bed,” said an officer of Golf Green police
station.

The police suspect that the victim had called an acquaintance to her apartment after her mother left. The police are looking for this person.

People in the neighbourhood said the woman lived with her mother and had bought the apartment on the ground floor of the four-storey building around two years ago.

“The victim has lost a lot of blood. There was a deep cut on her throat. The cause of her death would be clear only after the post-mortem, which will be conducted on Thursday,” said a senior police officer.

Officers of the homicide department of the detective department went to the spot.

Rupesh Kumar, who is officiating as joint commissioner (crime), said the injury mark on the body was homicidal.

“A murder case has been started,” Kumar said.

Sources said cops had obtained the victim’s call records and were trying to trace the person she had last called.