Police said four persons who were arrested on the charge of murdering a 33-year-old woman Laxmi Pariyar (Nepali) have been made public at the District Police Office, Kaski, in Pokhara, on Wednesday.

Police further said that the other three persons are at large.

After a preliminary investigation, police arrested the mastermind behind Laxmi’s murder, her husband, Ramesh Nepali, 35, of Rambazaar-15 in the Lake City. He has confessed to his crime, police said.

Subsequently, police rounded-up his accomplices–Sanjaya Sharma, 32, of Bhojpur Municipality-5, Chit Ranjan Sah, 26, of Ishworpur Municipality-3 in Sarlahi district, both of them running a mobile shop at various locations in Pokhara, and Anu Pariyar, 19, of Gorkha Gandaki Rural Municipality-7.

Earlier, Ramesh had filed a missing complaint about his wife at DPO, Kaski, on June 16. However, police succeeded only in recovering Laxmi’s remains’ from Karkale jungle area in Pumdi Bhumdi of Pokhara-22 on July 10, despite conducting an extensive search operation.

The circumstance indicates that a sharp weapon was used to slit Laxmi’s throat to murder her, according to DPO Chief and Superintendent of Police (SP) Dan Bahadur Karki.

SP Karki said, “Ramesh was in an extra-marital affair with his sister-in-law, Anu Pariyar. However, Anu did not want Laxmi to be a thorn in their relationship and pressured Ramesh to clear her from their path, a year ago.”

Since then, Ramesh plotted to murder his wife to start a new lease of life with his new-found love. Ramesh then lured his accomplices in exchange for money and also hired three hitmen from neighbouring India for Rs one million, SP Karki shared.

As planned, Ramesh hired a scooter and took his wife to a nearby jungle in the pretext of treating her knee pain with herbs, as the contract killers were waiting for them.

After reaching the jungle, Ramesh made an excuse and left his wife unaccompanied, Indian hitmen took advantage of the situation and cut her throat to death, according to SP Karki.

Meanwhile, police have filed a murder case against all the suspects at the Kaski District Court, today itself.