Police on Tuesday arrested six persons for their alleged involvement in abduction and murder of Raj Kumar Shrestha, a Tulsipur-based businessman, in Dang.

Man Bahadur Bhandari, 37, of Hekuli-6 in Dang, the alleged mastermind of the incident, Tikaram Gharti aka Nirmal, 39, of Shantinagar-4, currently residing at Tulsipur-6 and his 18-year-old daughter Puja were held by a special team of Nepal Police from Duruwa Rural Municipality-6 in Banke along the Nepal-India border.

Superintendent of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh of the District Police Office, Dang, said they had also arrested Bhupendra Bhandari, 28, of Tulsipur-8, Khum Bahadur KC of Tulsipur-11 and Narayan Oli of Tulsipur-9 in connection with the incident.

Shrestha, who was abducted along with Rana Bahadur Gharti, a resident of Harpur in Ghorahi, was murdered on June 9. SP Singh said that the arrested people admitted to murdering Rana Bahadur the same day they killed Shrestha. Police had suspected that Gharti might have a role in Shrestha’s kidnapping.

A police investigation revealed that Puja had called Shrestha, the owner of Butwal Bastralaya, a clothes shop in Tulsipur, on his phone and took him to Salyan on the night of June 9. Shrestha’s body was recovered at the Jhimpe Lek Bhajyang forest in Chatreshwori Rural Municipality-4 of Salyan on June 30.

Earlier, police had announced a reward of Rs 100,000 for information about the absconding trio—Man Bahadur Bhandari, Tikaram Gharti and Puja.

Police had arrested four persons—Man Bahadur Pun alias Ramesh, 40, of Ghorahi-4; Rugat Thapa Magar, 23, of Tulsipur-6; Abiral Mahatara aka Kamal, 25, of Tulsipur-12 and Jama Pun, 38, of Naya Bazaar, Ghorahi-14—a few days earlier for their alleged involvement in the abduction and subsequent murder of Shrestha.