A lieutenant colonel was arrested in Assam on Saturday in connection with the murder of a 35-year-old woman from Chennai with whom he shared “close ties”, police said.

A police officer said a locket found on the victim that they were able to link to a temple in Coimbatore, and call records of the victim and the accused, helped crack the case.

Lt Col A.S. Walia, the Tezpur-based defence PRO, was picked up for questioning on Friday and arrested on Saturday. He has been booked for murder, abduction, causing the disappearance of evidence, and common intent. He has been remanded in seven days’ police custody.

The police said they were yet to establish motive or the involvement of others in the murder of Vandhana Shree, whose body was found wrapped in a polythene bag beside the national highway in Changsari, Kamrup district, on February 15.

The police have traced her four-year-old daughter, whom the accused had allegedly taken to Calcutta on February 21 and “abandoned” at Howrah station. She was rescued by an NGO.

“A woman police officer went to Calcutta and got the child back to Guwahati on Friday,” DIG (central western range) Brajenjit Singha told The Telegraph.

Vandhana had arrived in Guwahati on February 14 on the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express.

“There was no injury mark on the body, no signs of sexual assault. There was no lead,” Singha said.

“There was, however, a locket showing a goddess with 10 hands. We started gathering details through the Internet. We alerted all police stations within and outside the state with her photos.”

The investigators found out that similar lockets are sold at the Ma Linga Bhairavi temple in Coimbatore, run by the Isha Foundation.

“We shared the photo of the locket and the deceased with the foundation, which responded with a photo of a woman who resembled the deceased. They also shared a number and asked us to crosscheck,” Singha said.

“We called the number and got in touch with her father, who said she had left for Varanasi three days ago with her daughter. He also sent photos that showed her with her four-year-old daughter and the lieutenant colonel.”

Investigation revealed that the accused had met the victim when she arrived in Guwahati on February 14.

“Her mobile was switched off around 8.50pm on February 14 in Guwahati. Her body was found on February 15 in Changsari, about 24km away,” Singha said.

“After getting details of the deceased from her father, we checked the call records of both the deceased and the army officer. They were in touch and we also found the presence of the army officer in Changsari, where the body was dumped.”

Singha added: “The army officer has admitted to his role but investigations are on. We are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

He credited the cracking of the case to “teamwork”.

The father of the victim has told the police that the accused, who is from Punjab and has a son, wanted to adopt the victim’s daughter.

“The father said the deceased was a divorcee and had met the army officer a few months ago,” Singha said.