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4 held over India tourist murder

By CNN Senior Correspondent Satinder Bindra

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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Four people have been arrested in India over the death of a British tourist who was apparently beaten, strangled and then hung from a tree.

Stephen Bennett, 40, was murdered in the village of Malsai, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Mumbai, on the morning of December 11.

"It's a case of sexual assault or sexual involvement," Inspector general of police Satyapal Singh told CNN on Thursday.

He said a village woman told authorities a Western man had followed her and tried to molest or rape her when she had gone to relieve herself in the fields early that morning.

Police said they had recovered cash and a British passport from the dead man's body. The body has been handed over to Bennett's family in England.

Bennett, from Cheltenham in western England, was touring India and on December 7 had boarded a train from the popular holiday resort of Goa to India's financial capital, Mumbai.

But en route, police said, Bennett got off at Roha station, which is 6 km from the village where he was murdered.

"We are still trying to find out how he got there and what he was doing in the area for four days," said Singh. He ruled out the possibility that the tourist could have been kidnapped by some locals.

Among those arrested was Ramesh Mene, the husband of the woman who made the claims. The others are all residents of Malsai village, Singh said.

A spokesperson from the British High Commission in New Delhi told CNN there were many unanswered questions in the case but they were waiting for the police to complete their investigations.

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