LUCKNOW, Sept. 23 -- The police, on Monday, arrested three persons, including the wife, for the murder of a 35-year-old man whose body was recovered from a drain near Salempur under Nagaram police station limits on September 19. Initially the wife of the deceased tried to mislead the police and led them to believe that her husband's rivals were involved in the murder. Instead of grieving her husband's death, she was actively trying to frame others. "Meera, the wife of the deceased Ramfer tried to mislead investigators by filing a complaint against her husband's rivals, but technical evidence and sustained interrogation exposed the conspiracy," said DCP South Nipun Agarwal. He added, "It was a blind case with no direct leads. The team relied on a mix of manual intelligence and technical evidence, which helped us crack the case within days." "Nagram police arrested three people, including deceased's wife Meera, 32, a homemaker; Basantlal, 42, the deceased's maternal uncle and a farmer from Rae Bareli, and Ketar, 35, a musician from Unnao for conspiring to murder Ramfer and then attempting to frame others," said DCP South in a press conference. According to police, Basantlal lived next door to the victim's house and developed an illicit relationship with Meera. With Ramfer addicted to alcohol and often violent towards his wife, the two allegedly decided to eliminate him. Ketar, a long-time acquaintance of Basantlal, was roped in to execute the plan. "On the evening of September 18, while a bhajan-kirtan in the village kept neighbours distracted, the accused lured Ramfer out for drinks. Once intoxicated, he was strangled with a towel by Basantlal and Ketar, before his body was dumped in a drain to make it appear accidental," said ADCP South Vasanth Rallapalli. According to police, the murder weapon, a black towel and the motorcycle used in the crime were later recovered. "During questioning, Basantlal admitted he had also taken Ramfer's phone, which he claimed to have thrown into bushes near the Indira Canal. Search for the device is still underway," read a police statement. An FIR was registered under Sections 103(1), 61(2), 3(5), 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Nagaram police station....