Police retrieved the body of Bilkis Begum, 45, with her throat half slit from the servant room at about 7:10am and sent the body to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for autopsy.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (north zone) Golam Rasul said Bilkis' son Mohammad Shaheen, 23, who came to the house around an hour before the grisly murder might have something to do with the killing. "We are not dismissing the suggestion that she might have committed suicide as we have recovered a blood stained knife from under her hand," he said.

Some residents of the house and the police inquest report, however, mentioned that the knife was found under the bed.

Police picked up Shaheen, 23, for interrogation. Golam Rasul said Shaheen made inconsistent statements about the incident.

Akbar Hossain was not in the house last night. He was on a visit to Shibpur of Narsingdi to attend a political programme.

BBC Bangla Service quoted Akbar Hossain as saying that he was outside Dhaka and returned yesterday morning after being informed of the incident.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and police detectives visited the house after the incident. The CID also collected fingerprints of four police guards stationed at the entrance and four staff of the house.

Ziaur Rahman Titu, Assistant Private Secretary (APS) to Akbar Hossain, said Shaheen came to the house at about 6:00am from Chittagong. There he works as a security guard at Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC). Security guards of the residence allowed him in, as he was known to all.

Shaheen claimed himself innocent. He said after changing clothes at a servant's room on the second floor, he went to his mother's room on the ground floor and found her lying in a pool of blood.

The on-duty policemen called in Gulshan police immediately after Shaheen informed them of the incident.

Titu said usually Bilkis keeps her doors locked from inside, but the security guards found the doors open after Shaheen had informed them of the matter. "Possibly Bilkis opened the door to allow Shaheen enter," he said.

He said Bilkis had been mentally sick for the last few weeks and receiving treatment from a family physician for abnormal behaviours.

"Shaheen used to call his mother from Chittagong and rebuke her for yet not helping make his job permanent despite working in a minister's house," Titu said.

Wife of Abdus Sattar of Goonbaria village in Motihar upazila of Rajshahi, Bilkis has been working as domestic help in Akbar Hossain's house for the last 12 years.