Nagpur, Jan 9 (PTI) A postmaster was killed over payment of contract farming dues near here in Maharashtra, police said on Thursday.

Three accused in the case, who buried the victim's body in his own farm, were arrested on Thursday.

The deceased, Ashok Dhaniram Wadibhasme, was postmaster at Kachurwarhi village under Ramtek tehsil of Nagpur district, and also owned four acres of agriculture land there.

The 54-year-old used to live in Nagpur with family and come to Kachurwarhi daily by train, said Police Inspector of Ramtek police station Dilip Thakur.

After office hours on January 6, Wadibhasme went to the local vegetable market in the evening, but did not return home, he said.

His mobile phone was also switched off. His family members launched a search for him and later lodged a missing person's complaint with the Ramtek police, Thakur said.

During the probe, the police suspected Wadibhasme may have been killed, he said.

Acting on a tip-off, the police on Thursday rounded up one Bhagwan Dokrimare on suspicion of his involvement in the crime.

During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime and also showed the spot in the victim's farm where he was buried, Thakur said.

The police took out the semi-decomposed body of Wadibhasme and sent it for post-mortem.

Wadibhasme had rented his farm to Dokrimare on contract. However, delay by Dokrimare in payment for contract farming had often led to heated exchange of words between the duo, the inspector said.

Angry over regular phone calls of Wadibhasme for pending dues, Dokrimare hatched a conspiracy to kill him, he said.

The accused called Wadibhasme at the farm on January 6 evening and strangled him to death using a rope, Thakur said.

He then buried the body in the farm with the help of two associates, Hemraj Shravan Bhalme (36) a resident of Ramtek and Gopichand Kalasarpe (34), a native of Khodgaon, the police officer said.

The police arrested the three accused and booked them under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120-b (criminal conspiracy) 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), he added.

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