30-year-old Chobi Mistry's body was recovered from Pannamoye Sishu Niketan in Bambottola this afternoon and owner Tripti Roy (60) was detained following complaints of the locals, they said.
Mistry's body was first spotted by masons, working in the next building, hanging from the ceiling of a bathroom in the orphanage, police said.
It was learnt, that angry locals, alleging that Roy has murdered Chobi, broke into the orphanage and beat her up before police reached the spot and took control of the situation.
Inmates also alleged that Roy used to ill-treat them and they were not given proper food and Chobi used to protest against this, they said.
Police are looking into the matter and the body has been sent for postmortem.