The couple whose bodies were found stuffed in two bags at a farmhouse where they lived as caretakers had been involved in a bloody fight before being strangulated, a preliminary post-mortem report and the findings of a forensic probe suggest.

Police said the woman’s forehead had a two-inch deep wound.

Patches of blood were found all over the room of the Narendrapur farmhouse where the bodies of Pradip Biswas, 55, and his wife Alpana, 45, were found on Tuesday, an officer said.

Officers probing the twin murders suspect the blood found in the room could be of the assailant or assailants.

According to the preliminary post-mortem report, the couple were killed on Monday. No one was arrested till late on Wednesday.

“There are marks of violence all over the room. It appears there was a fight in the house before the couple were killed. There are no bleeding injuries on the victims except a two-inch-deep wound on the woman’s forehead. But the amount of blood found in the room was much more than what could have come out of the wound, indicating the assailants had bled, too,” said superintendent of police, Baruipur police district, Rasheed Munir Khan.

A team of forensic officials visited the farmhouse, located on a sprawling plot at Khardaha Turia in Narendrapur, to collect samples. Samples of blood stains were also collected for tests.

An officer said Rs 2,500 was found in a cupboard. “Had it been a murder for gain, the killers would have taken away the money,” an officer of Narendrapur police station said.

An LED television set is missing from the house, one of the family members of the deceased has reported to the police. The cops, however, said the house did not have any cable connection and power connection was set up only recently.

The macabre attack and the attempt to hide the bodies have left the investigators baffled. Sleuths are wondering why the assailants did not dispose of the bodies.

“The way the bodies were found and the fact that there was no apparent attempt to dispose of them suggest it was not a murder for gain. There could be a deeper motive,” said a senior police officer.

The bodies of Pradip and Alpana, who had been looking after the property since 1997, were discovered after one of their relatives turned up at the house.

Neighbours said they had last seen the couple on Sunday evening.

A Calcutta-based family had bought the property in the 1960s. Initially, a mud house stood on the plot. The concrete building came up much later.