Bhubaneswar: A day after the brutal assault on a woman by her husband inside her office sent shockwaves across the State Capital, police attributed the incident to simmering hostilities between the couple and said suspicion and rage by the accused led to the horrifying, cold-blooded attack.

While the accused Sapan Kumar Kar has been arrested, the woman Madhusmita Das is critical and has been shifted from Capital Hospital to SCM Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

Addressing mediapersons, ACP, Zone-3 said the accused carried out the attack out of rage when his wife did not turn up for the tenth day rituals of his uncle.

Sapan, a native of Soro in Balasore district, had married Madhusmita of Asurai area in 2018. He was working as a chef at a bar in Pune. In 2021, their marriage started showing signs of discord. The duo reportedly started having regular fights. While Sapan accused wife Madhusmita of having an extramarital affair with her brother's relative, the latter had filed a police case at Soro alleging dowry harassment. Madhusmita had then parted ways and was living at her parents' place with her son for the last two years. She had recently come to Bhubaneswar in search of work and had joined a real estate firm located at Krutibandhu apartments in Baramunda locality, police said.

On Monday, Madhusmita had gone to work as usual when at around 1.30 pm, Sapan turned up at her office. He introduced himself at the reception and then went up to her chamber on the second floor. The duo had an argument when all of a sudden Madhusmita screamed. Office sources said they saw her running for life with Sapan brutally hacking her with a knife.

She was stabbed 7 to 10 times on the stomach, neck and back before collapsing. Initially, none of the eyewitnesses came to her rescue out of fear but later, some of them mustered courage and managed to catch hold of Sapan before informing the police.

While Sapan was arrested, Madhusmita was rushed to the hospital in a critical state.