A former Chinese regional police chief has been arrested on suspicion of murder, the country's top prosecution agency said today, the victim reportedly a girlfriend 35 years his junior.
Zhao Liping, 63, headed the police in the northern region of Inner Mongolia for seven years until he retired in 2012.
He was detained last week in the city of Chifeng on suspicion of killing a woman with whom he "had an intimate relationship", the Xinhua news agency reported.
He was arrested yesterday on the charge of murder, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement.
The Beijing News quoted unnamed sources close to police as saying Zhao killed the 28-year-old because she wanted to expose his wrongdoings, adding it was unclear what he was alleged to have done.
The woman - identified only by her surname Li - survived Zhao's first two shots and fled, the newspaper said in a previous report, before he chased her down in a car and shot her in the head.
Witnesses saw him put her body in the boot of his Audi and crash into four cars while driving away, it added. Li's burned body was found on a mountainside the following day.
Zhao had known Li "for years" and the two had spent a night together at a hotel before the killing, the report said.
Many fallen Chinese officials have been found to have mistresses and corruption investigations have often been triggered by allegations from spurned or angry women.
Liu Tienan, a former top Chinese economic planning official, was convicted of bribery and jailed for life after his mistress gave incriminating information to a journalist who posted online her accusations of shady business deals, fake academic credentials and death threats.
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