Chandigarh, Aug 4 - The 50-year-old wife of a bank official was found brutally murdered in her house here Monday evening. Police suspect she could have been raped before being killed.

Santosh Kumari, wife of a deputy manager of a nationalised bank here, was found murdered when her husband returned home from office in the evening. They had shifted to Chandigarh just two months back from a Punjab town.

A neighbour called the husband, Kishan Kumar, and told him that the television set in their house was switched on at a high volume and nobody was answering the doorbell. On returning home, Kumar called the police, who gained entry through a window and found Kumari lying dead on the bed.

'We are working on the theory of rape before the murder. The woman's body was found half-clad with hands and mouth tied with a dupatta (scarf) in one room and her sari was lying in the other room,' J.S. Khaira, deputy superintendent of police (south), told IANS Tuesday.

He added: 'We have also found signs of resistance and fight between the woman and the assailant as blood stains were found on some clothes and on the bed sheet.