A 40-year-old woman in Bhubaneswar was allegedly hit with an iron rod and then suffocated to death using a polythene bag by her two minor sons late on Wednesday night. The police said the sons, who have been arrested, were reportedly being tortured by her.

The woman, said police, who stayed with her two sons in an apartment in Sundarpada area of Bhubaneswar returned home in intoxicated condition which led to a shouting match among them.

“The two sons then gagged her with a polythene and hit her with an iron rod resulting in the heavy bleeding and subsequent death of the woman. The two boys then bolted the home and fled. They were arrested on Thursday morning,” said Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Dr Umashankar Dash.

After the murder, the boys had kept the body in the toilet and fled with their pet dog, said police. They later called the building security guard, the police added, and informed that some outsiders had barged into their flat and beaten their mother to death.

Following this, the guard along with some others went to enquire and found the flat locked from outside. The police were subsequently informed and the body of the woman was found inside the bathroom.

Police said the two boys admitted to their crime and have been arrested. They would be sent to a correctional home. Police officials said the two boys who were staying in the apartment with their mother for the last 3 months, were being physically tortured by their mother. She used to come home intoxicated and hit them, police said.

The woman’s husband works in Rourkela. The family had moved to the apartment from the Old Town area of Bhubaneswar recently.

The body has been sent for post-mortem.