Man Says He Killed BJP's Nagpur Member Missing Since August 1, Arrested

A resident of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh has "confessed" to killing Nagpur-based Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary Sana alias Heena Khan, who went missing last week, after his arrest on Friday, a police official said.

The accused, Amit Sahu alias Pappu, was arrested along with two others by the Nagpur police from the Ghora Bazar area of Jabalpur in the adjoining state, ten days after Khan, a Nagpur BJP minority cell functionary, went missing, he said.

Nagpur DCP (Zone 2) Rahul Madne claimed Sahu, the prime accused in the case who was known to the 34-year-old victim, has "confessed" to kidnapping and killing Khan.

He also showed the murder spot to the police, but the victim's body has not been recovered yet, said the officer.

A motive was not immediately clear.

The role of the two other persons arrested along with Sahu, who runs a 'dhaba' (roadside eatery) in Jabalpur, in the crime was not disclosed by the police.

The Nagpur police team that arrested the trio has left for the city in eastern Maharashtra and will produce the accused in a local court on Saturday.

Khan's mother Mehrunisha, a resident of Awasthi Nagar here, lodged a complaint when her daughter went missing after leaving for Jabalpur on August 1 to meet Sahu, the police have said.

Based on her complaint, an FIR (first information report) was lodged at the Mankapur police station here against Sahu, who was booked under IPC sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), they said.

According to the FIR, Khan left from Nagpur in a private bus and contacted her mother the next day on reaching Jabalpur. Later she went missing.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)