Police dug out the semi-decomposed body and sent it for post-mortem (Representational)
A postmaster was killed over payment of contract farming dues near Nagpur in Maharashtra, police said on Thursday.
Three accused in the case, who buried the victim's body in his own farm in Kachurwarhi, were arrested on Thursday.
The victim, Ashok Dhaniram Wadibhasme, was a postmaster and also owned four acres of agriculture land.
The 54-year-old used to live in Nagpur with family and come to Kachurwarhi daily by train, said Inspector of Ramtek police station Dilip Thakur.
After office hours on January 6, Ashok Wadibhasme went to the local vegetable market in the evening, but did not return home, he said.
His mobile phone was also switched off. His family members launched a search for him and later lodged a missing person's complaint with the Ramtek police, Mr Thakur said.
During the probe, the police suspected Ashok Wadibhasme may have been killed, he said.
Acting on a tip-off, the police on Thursday rounded up one Bhagwan Dokrimare on suspicion of his involvement in the crime.
During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime and also showed the spot in the victim's farm where he was buried, Thakur said.
The police dug out the semi-decomposed body of Ashok Wadibhasme and sent it for post-mortem.
The victim had rented his farm to the accused on contract. However, delay by the accused in payment for contract farming had often led to heated exchange of words between the two, the inspector said.
Angry over regular phone calls of the victim for pending dues, the accused hatched a conspiracy to kill him, he said.
The accused called Wadibhasme at the farm on January 6 evening and strangled him using a rope, Mr Thakur said.
He then buried the body in the farm with the help of two associates, Hemraj Shravan Bhalme, 36, and Gopichand Kalasarpe, 34, the police officer said.
The police arrested the three accused and charged them under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120-b (criminal conspiracy) 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), he added.