The burnt body of the Telangana vet was found on Thursday.

Highlights Four arrested in the gangrape and murder of 26-year-old near Hyderabad

They offered her help after bike tyre was punctured, then raped, murdered

Her body, badly burnt, was found on Thursday morning

Three 20-year-old men and a 26-year-old man have been arrested in the gangrape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinarian who went missing from Shamshabad, about 20 km from Hyderabad, on Wednesday night. Her burnt body was recovered the next day.

The accused have been identified as Mohammad Areef, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakesavulu. All of them are from Narayanpet, a town about 160 km from Hyderabad . They work as lorry drivers and cleaners. All of them were arrested within 48 hours of the brutal murder.

The police say the four men offered help to the woman with her vehicle after its tyre was punctured at around 9:20 pm and in the next one hour, they gang-raped and murdered her.

Based on the interrogation, investigation and technical clues, according to police, Areef and Shiva had come to the toll plaza at 9 pm on Wednesday with a truckload of bricks. They were joined by their two friends. There was a delay in unloading and so they waited near the toll plaza.

In the evening at about 6:15 pm, they saw the young woman parking her bike and hatched a plan to sexually assault her. They punctured the two-wheeler. When she returned after 9:00 pm, Areef along with Shiva offered to help her to get it repaired. To win her trust, Shiva took the bike with him for a few minutes and returned to say that no shops were open.

It was at this time that the young woman had called her sister and said she was feeling scared. Minutes later, she was pulled into a compound nearby where the men gang-raped her and smothered her to death. They had switched off her mobile by 9:45 pm.

By 10:20 pm, they had murdered her. The woman's body was kept in their vehicle. By 10:28 pm, they had left the place. Areef and Naveen took the two-wheeler and abandoned it at Kothur village after removing the number plate while the other two went in the lorry. They tried to buy petrol at a couple of locations at around 1 am. By 2:30 am, they set the body on fire under a culvert at Chattanpally.

Later, they came to the city and unloaded the bricks in the vehicle near Attapur and dispersed. "Based on technical clues, they were caught,'' said VC Sajjanar, Commissioner, Cyberabad Police.