Shristi Jain, who had come to Patna from Indore in Madhya Pradesh to meet her would-be fiancé, was shot dead in broad daylight on Monday.
The 26-year-old woman was on her way in an auto to Patna railway station from a hotel in Jakkanpur locality of south Patna to catch a train for Indore when she was murdered near Mithapur agriculture farm, which is just a few metres from the Jakkanpur police station.
The assailants pumped three bullets into her. Doctors at the local hospital, where some local residents took her, declared her brought dead.
Shristi, the police said, used work in Delhi. She had published a matrimonial advertisement in a newspaper and Rajneesh Kumar, a resident of Raghopur in Vaishali district, had responded to it. Rajneesh, the police said, had also spoken to Shristi before her arrival in Patna.
She came to Patna on January 23 by a flight from Delhi, and Rajneesh had gone to receive her at the airport. The two checked-in at Mani International hotel the same day. They had introduced themselves as husband and wife, according to the hotel records.
The cops said a man called Rahul Kumar, who claimed to be Rajneesh's friend, had also visited the hotel.
Shristi was supposed to catch a train to Indore on Sunday but her ticket was not confirmed. She returned to the hotel alone.
Rajneesh turned up at the hotel on Monday morning and had a heated discussion with her. The hotel staff told the police that Rajneesh was repeatedly telling the girl that he had already spent about Rs 1 lakh on her and that she should not ditch him. She checked out of the hotel around 10.30am to head for Patna railway station to catch a train.
"Rajneesh and Rahul chased the girl on a motorcycle and shot her near the Mithapur agriculture farm," said DSP (sadar) P.K. Mandal.
The police ascertained the identity of the murderers on the basis of the auto driver's statement.
"We showed him (the driver) the CCTV footage of the hotel in which the boy can be seen having an altercation with the girl. The driver immediately identified the assailant," Mandal said.
The police also spoke to Shristi's father Sushil Jain in Indore, and he told them that he knew of his daughter's visit to Patna to fix up her marriage.
"The girl's family members would be reaching Patna soon and the dead body would be handed over to them after the post-mortem," said SP (east) Dhurat Saayli Savla Ram. "A police team raided Rajneesh's house in Vaishali but he was not there. Police recovered several documents and some live cartridges, which indicate his shady activities. The boy and his friends would be nabbed soon."