Police have found property dispute as the motive behind the murder of an aggregator cab driver here last month and his girlfriend and four other men have been arrested for the crime, officials said on Wednesday.
The victim, Akram Iqbaluddin Qureshi (22), was attacked with iron rods and stones on January 17 near Tansa Vaitarna water pipeline at Mauje Pogaon in Bhiwandi area of Maharashtra's Thane district.
The body was found in a thicket near the pipeline on January 18.
The Bhiwandi Taluka police subsequently registered a case of murder against unidentified persons, senior police inspector Dadaso Edke said.
Two police teams were formed to conduct a probe into the case. The investigators examined CCTV footage near the crime scene, which showed the victim arriving with a woman.
After a technical analysis of the victim's mobile phone data, the police last month took his girlfriend Jassi Tiwari (20) into custody, the official said.
During interrogation, she confessed to her involvement in the crime and informed police about the names and details of the other accused, he said.
One of the accused, Mohammad Kaif Mohammad Rafiq Qureshi (22), had a land dispute with the victim, the official said.
The man and his accomplices used Tiwari to trap the victim.
On the day of the incident, Tiwari lured the victim from his home in Mumbai to Bhiwandi, where he was taken to a pre-decided location in a car, the official said.
Four other persons were waiting there, armed with iron rods and stones. They allegedly attacked the victim brutally, leading to his death, the police said.
Mohammad Kaif and three other men Isamuddin Riazuddin Qureshi (35), Salman Md Shafiq Khan (32) and Suhail Ahmed Qureshi (28) were arrested on Monday from their native place Haiderpur in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district, the official said.
Further investigation was on into the case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
