Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested two main accused and apprehended a minor for their alleged role in the murder of aspiring air hostess Riya Gautam, PTI reported. Gautam was stabbed in public view by a man in Delhi’s Shahdara. The accused – Adil Banne Khan (23) and Juned Salim Ansari (19) and a minor – were arrested at Bandra on Friday night.

While Khan, the main accused, is a resident of Mansarovar Park in Delhi, the others are from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. All the accused were handed over to a team of Delhi Police, Sanjay Saxena, Joint Commissioner of Police.

The breakthrough in the case came when Unit-9 of the Mumbai Crime Branch received information that Khan and two of his associates were hiding in Bandra East, police said. A search operation was then carried out in the area and all the three accused were arrested.

The murder took place on Wednesday evening after the accused had an altercation with the woman while she was on her way to a local market in Shahdara. He then stabbed her repeatedly and later fled the spot. Onlookers waited for the police to arrive to take her to hospital. ““Much time was lost in that and the girl also lost a lot of blood in the process,” Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) said.

The woman succumbed to her injuries on Thursday morning at GTB Hospital in Dilshad Garden.

The attack took place in a narrow lane in Ram Nagar neighbourhood of Shahdara. Adil has earlier been booked in a vehicle theft case. According to police, Adil and the woman were friends until a while ago.