Three days after the murder and suspected rape of a 22-year-old Dalit woman in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested three persons believed to be involved in the crime, The Times of India reported on Monday.

They were identified as Hari Ram Kori, Vijay Sahu and Digvijay Singh. The men are residents of Ayodhya.

Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar said that the men had confessed to murdering the woman and dumping her body in a drain.

A post-mortem examination confirmed that the woman had died due to shock and haemorrhage. Forensic teams have collected swab samples to determine whether she had been sexually assaulted.

“Based on their confessions, we have recovered the victim’s clothing, jackets worn by the accused at the time of the crime and ash and buttons from a burnt jacket belonging to Digvijay Singh, which was destroyed after the crime,” Nayyar told the newspaper.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the men were under the influence of narcotics at the time of the crime, the police said.

The woman had gone missing on Thursday after leaving home at 10 pm. Her family searched for her through the night but could not find her. The next morning, her brother-in-law discovered her body in a canal about 500 metres from the village.

A missing person report was filed at the Ayodhya police station on Friday.

The senior superintendent of police said the missing person case has been converted into a murder case and assured that the matter would be taken up in a fast-track court.

Priyanka Maurya, a member of the state Women’s Commission, told ANI: “It is a very sad incident. I came here to meet the family members of the victim. I assured their family that justice will be served. Whoever has committed this incident should understand that the Yogi [Chief Minister Adityanath’s] government is in the state and the family will get justice.”