A Jain seer from Nand Parvat Mutt at Hirekodi village in Chikkodi taluk was murdered and his body was found dumped in a borewell pit at Khatakbhavi village in Raibag taluk late on Friday.
Kamkumar Nand Maharaj was last seen on the evening of July 5 by devotees and later went missing.
Devotees searched for the seer and on Friday filed a complaint that he was missing.
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Preliminary investigations revealed that one person had been borrowing money from the seer and did not want to repay.
He along with another person murdered the seer and his dismembered body was dumped in a borewell pit at Khatakbhavi village in Raibag.
Superintendent of Police Dr Sanjeev Patil informed DH that they cracked the case within four hours of the missing complaint being registered.
The suspect who had been accompanying the seer for the last few days was detained and during interrogation confessed to having committed the crime. Another person who had helped the accused too has been arrested.
Further investigations are in progress to ascertain the involvement of others in the murder, he said.