LAHORE, Aug 29: Police on Monday claimed to have solved the murder mystery of a former federal minorities minister and arrested his three alleged killers, including a police inspector.

Derek Cyprian, 57, was found murdered on Aug 9 three days after he had gone missing from the Union Bank in the Defence Housing Society. He had been found dead in a drain in Manga Mandi.

Mr Cyprian had served as federal minister for minorities, sports and culture in 1999 after President Musharraf took over. He also served in the office until the PML-Q formed its government.

Speaking at a press conference, Lahore investigation police chief SSP Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmad said Union Bank manager Hamayoun Nabil and Inspector Ali Imran Niazi had masterminded the murder for Rs15 million. Of the money, he said Rs10 million had been seized from the two prime suspects.

Hina Cyprian, daughter of the deceased, had got an abduction case registered on April 8. She told the police her father had left his house in Shadab Colony on Ferozepur Road for the Union Bank in the Defence Housing Society on Aug 6. She said she had approached the bank when her father did not return until Aug 7.

The bank manager confirmed that her father had visited him and left after parking his car outside the bank in another car with someone whom he did not know.

The investigation police chief said the bank manager as per plan had refused to pay Rs15 million against a cheque the former minister had given him on Aug 6. The manager being an acquaintance to Mr Cyprian had asked him to wait for a day for the money, saying that he was short of cash, he said.

The former minister had agreed to that and asked the manager to pay the money to a man he would be sending to him on Aug 7. He had just come out of the bank, the police inspector came across him posing as if his presence was just a co-incidence, the police chief said.

Currently serving as Gulberg investigation police in-charge, the inspector asked Mr Cyprian to go with him to visit a property for sale, the SSP said and added the inspector insisted that the former minister should park his car outside the bank. He said the inspector drove the former minister in his car with two men already in it. He said the inspector and the two men strangled the ex-minister and threw his body into the drain.

Of the arrests, the police chief said the manager kept on giving contradictory statements. On checking the bank record, he said it was found that the cheque had been encashed on Aug 8, although the manager knew and confirmed that the former minister was missing. The police chief said the manager was grilled, who disclosed the name of the inspector. He was taken into custody and he divulged everything, he said.

The two men in the car were hired assassins, he said and identified one of them as Adnan Bashir, saying that he had been held and raids were in progress for the arrest of the other man.