KATHMANDU: Police on Friday said at least four persons allegedly involved in the murder of a 55-year-old woman in Tailung of Budanilakantha Municipality-1 have been arrested recently.

In a statement today, the Metropolitan Crime Division said a sleuth deployed from MCD arrested the master mind 30-year-old Sudama Lamichanne of Kakani Rural Municipality-2 in Nuwakot district from Kapilvastu district on Wednesday.

He was preparing to flee to India after the incident, according to police.

Police said Lamichanne had brutally murdered Parbati Dhakal, who was staying in her daughter, Geeta Dhakal's house in Tailung, with a sledge hammer on July 27 and robbed all her ornaments and cash from her possession.

The suspect was in dire need of cash to finance his travel abroad for foreign employment, it said in the statement.

Earlier, Lamichanne who had known Parbati Dhakal through his mother for four months ago had worked at Geeta Dhakal's house for a week and had walked away without furnishing any reasons.

The suspect who was staying at a local guest house in Gangabu area cooked a robbery plan with his friend before boarding a micro bus to Budanilakantha Municipality.

The duo was welcomed by deceased Parbati Dhakal and offered them tea and sat in a sofa after they declined to have beverages.

However, the duo took advantage of the situation and forcefully laid down the woman on the floor and repeatedly smacked onto the head with a sledge hammer and decamped with gold bangle 4 sets; bracelet 1 set, ear rings 1 set, iPad, wrist watch before fleeing the scene, as stated in the statement.

The duo took the robbed ornaments to the jewelry shop in Banasthali and cashed them for 115,000 and exchanged Indian bank notes with the intention of fleeing to India.

Police arrested two persons assisting them in cashing gold jewelry and Chandra Kanta Lawagun owner of the jewelry shop and also seized ornaments in melted form from his shop.

Similarly police also nabbed two other accomplices, 48-year Krishna Maya Shrestha and 20-year-old Kishor Shrestha both of them hailing from Bidur Municipality-8 in Nuwakot district.

It has been learned that the suspect Lamichanne had completed his jail term of 8 years on charge of attempted rape (unnatural sex) and was released on 2014.

Meanwhile, police have sent the suspects to the Metropolitan Police Circle Maharajgunj for further investigation and action today, reads the statement.