Patna : Police on Satusday claimed to have cracked the high-profile murder case of Patna University professor Papiya Ghosh and her maid with the arrest of five persons in the wee hours. The culprits, who were arrested from Balupar locality in Digha police station limits of the state capital, have confessed to their crime, the police told reporters. Ghosh, a spinster, and her septuagenarian maid servant Malti were found murdered with multiple stab injuries at the professor`s residence at Pataliputra colony area on December 3.

When contacted, IG (Patna zone) Rajwardhan Sharma confirmed the arrest of five persons but refused to disclose their identities, saying they were being interrogated. Around 15 suspects were rounded up for interrogation, including the five who have been arrested.

The car of the slain professor, computer and clothes were recovered during the night-long raids conducted by the police for arresting the culprits. Sources said finger-print experts have reached the Pataliputra police station to collect samples from the car in order to match them with those taken from the place of occurrence.

The killing of Ghosh, daughter of an IAS officer, who too had died of poisoning some 50 years ago, have triggered widespread public outrage with students and teachers taking out candle light processions and her sister Tuktuk Ghose, an IAS officer on special duty to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The matter led to the boycott of proceedings of the state assembly by the opposition on December 11. PTI