Lucknow, May 25 (IANS) Four people have been arrested in Lucknow for the murder of a Mumbai-based woman and burying her body in a cow shelter.

The arrested persons are Ram Suman Chaturvedi, mahant of the cow shelter; his daughter Sheela Mishra; her husband Baburam Mishra; and their son Udaybhan Mishra.

The woman's body was exhumed from the shelter in Mahanagar on May 20.

The police said Moorchana Pathak was killed over suspicions that she was having an affair with the mahant and he would transfer his property to her.

The mahant has been booked for concealing the crime.

Two other accused are absconding.

ADCP Central Zone, Manisha Singh, said that investigations have revealed that Moorchana had been living in Mumbai for the past 15 years after separation from her family.

The mahant told the police that she met him about a decade ago and since then, she used to visit him every 3-4 months as she would find mental peace in the place and became like a family member.

The ADCP said that the police got a tip-off about the crime from an unknown caller and exhumed the body.

The mahant then told police that the woman had died of some illness and he had buried her in the shelter as per her wishes.

However, the post-mortem examination revealed ante-mortem injuries as the cause of death, and police arrested the accused.

Regarding the motive for the murder, the ACDP said the accused told the police that the mahant, who is a retired government employee, had started giving his pension and a part of the money he received as donation for the shelter to the woman.

The family feared that with time, the mahant will give away his property and control of the cow shelter to Moorchana as she had also started taking interest in the affairs of the shelter and temple.

Babu Ram, Sheela, Udaybhan and one of the absconding accused son bludgeoned Moorchana to death with wooden canes while she was resting under a thatched roof.

Based on the information given by the accused, police also recovered the canes and the victim's mobile phone.