In connection with a severed head of a woman found in a garbage dump in South Kolkata’s Tollygunge area, a person was arrested on Saturday, police said.

The arrested man was identified as the brother-in-law of the deceased woman, they said. The accused had a relationship with the deceased, who had separated from her husband two years ago, police said.

Police said they arrested the man from his native village in South 24 Parganas district. During interrogation, he confessed to murdering the woman.

The woman’s severed head, which was wrapped in plastic, was recovered from a pile of garbage behind a multi-storey apartment in South Kolkata’s Golf Green area Friday morning. The police said the torso was found on Saturday at Regent Park.

Kolkata police, after receiving the news, reached the spot with police squad dogs. Several other body parts are still missing, an officer said.

“Our priority is to recover the remaining body parts and to know the exact motive behind the murder,” the officer said. CCTV footage of the entire area is being scanned to ascertain if any vehicle was used to dispose of the body parts, the officer said.

“The accused first strangulated the woman, aged around 35-40, and then decapitated her with a sharp weapon. It is also being investigated if other people were involved,” he said.

Complications in the relationship between the woman and her brother-in-law could be the cause of the murder, he said. The discovery of the severed head had sent shockwaves in the middle-class neighbourhood in the southern part of the city.