A 19-year-old girl was found dead with multiple stab wounds in Chotokamath village in Malda district on Tuesday. The discovery of Milli Bibi’s body in a bush near her home led to a protest in the village.

In his complaint lodged with the police, Milli’s father, Imtiyaz Ali, has accused her husband Barkhat Ali (24) of murder.

Police have detained Barkhat for questioning after finding certain discrepancies in his statement.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that Milli had married Barkhat a year ago but the couple hardly lived together since the husband worked in Delhi as a daily wage labourer. Barkhat had returned home a few days ago, police said.

According to Superintendent of Police (Malda), Satyajit Banerjee, Barkhat’s version of the incident and the findings from the postmortem do not match.

“Barkhat told police that his wife had left home in the wee hours to answer nature’s call but did not return. We found many wounds on Milli’s body inflicted with a sharp weapon, but the disturbing aspect is that she also had injuries made by fist blows. Someone using a sharp weapon to commit murder would not use fists. We suspect her husband to be behind the murder,” Banerjee said.

Milli’s father has alleged that she was being harassed by her husband for dowry.