Allahabad, Apr 18 (IANS): A team of Mumbai police aided by Allahabad cops traced the headless torso of Meenakshi Thapa, a budding Bollywood actress who was abducted on March 30, to a septic tank here, police said Wednesday.

The murder accused -- Amit Jaiswal and Preeti Sarin -- have confessed to killing Thapa lured by ransom.

The duo first befriended Thapa noting her high profile lifestyle and then brought her to Allahabad under the pretext of fixing a meeting with a Bhojpuri producer. Later, she was abducted by Jaiswal and Sarin, police said.

The accused, who have dabbled with some modelling assignments as well, called up Thapa's mother in Dehradun demanding Rs.1,50,000 as ransom to let her off. However, the parents could cough up only Rs.60,000. It was then that the duo decided to kill Thapa, police said.

According to police, the duo strangled the actress and then severed her head from the torso. They dumped the torso in a septic tank in the Darbhanga Colony area of the city and the severed head in the Vindhyasani area on the Allahabad-Varanasi highway.

While the torso of Thapa was fished out of the septic tank after the accused led the police team to the area, efforts are on to trace the head of the slain starlet.