BUTWAL: Police have arrested six people for murdering a woman on the pretext of selling her body parts at exorbitant prices for tantric purposes.

Kapilvastu Police has arrested six persons on charge of murdering Sarjahan Darji, who had been living in her parental house in Lumbini Cultural Municipality-5, Budantapur, Kapilvastu for the past 12-13 years.

According to Nava Raj Adhikari, Kapilvastu Police Chief, Abdul Kalam Musalman, 39, and Belal Ahmed Musalman of Kapilvastu’s Shuddhodhan -2 Nandanagar, Krishna Kurmi, 45, of Shuddhodhan-5 Shivalawa, Ramharak Yadav, 55, of Shudhodhan-5 Bisunpura, Karna Bahadur Sunar, 67, of Sainamina-1, Rupandehi and Khem Bahadur Malla, 67 of Butwal Sub-Metropolis-9, Shivnagar, Rupandehi, have been arrested.

Adhikari said that the accused had killed the woman and cut off her fingers. He said that the fingers were cut off in the belief that the fingers could be sold for Rs. 7/8 million per finger.

The body of the woman was found in the Betiya River on March 26 without any fingers.

To execute the murder, the murderer had called the woman to a grassland near the local Betiya river and strangled her to death. After that, the criminals cut her fingers off the hand and threw her dead body in the river, the police said.

The police are investigating further to get the details about others behind the scene.