The accused had buried the woman's body, which has now been recovered, police said.
A 28-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, police said on Wednesday. Five persons have been arrested in connection with the incident, they said.
The accused had buried the woman's body, which has now been recovered, in Kerajharia forest under Pali police station limits, Korba Superintendent of Police (SP) Jitendra Shukla said.
The father of the woman had filed a police complaint on September 30 saying she went to Korba town on September 28 but did not return, the official said.
Since then police had been trying to trace her whereabouts. Meanwhile, an unidentified man called the woman's father from her phone and demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh claiming that she had been kidnapped, the official said.
A police team was formed to crack the case and it conducted raids at various places, including Pali, Podi, Ratanpur and Sakri areas, but the accused kept changing their locations, he said.
On Tuesday, five men surrendered in a court at Katghora in Korba district in connection with the case. They were then arrested and remanded in police custody, the SP said.
"During interrogation, the main accused Sonu Lal Sahu (27) confessed to abducting the woman and strangling her to death after raping her. Later, he buried the body in Kerajharia forest with the help of his friends Sandip Bhoi (21), Virendra Bhoi (19), Surendra Bhoi (21), Jiva Rao (19)," he said.
It was Sahu who made the "ransom" call to mislead the police as he had already killed the woman by then, the official said.
All accused are natives of the Pali area, the SP said, adding that further probe is underway.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)