Noida, May 26 (IANS): A day after a scrap dealer was killed and four women of his family raped by a group of armed men near Jewar, the Uttar Pradesh police on Friday arrested four of their neighbours in the connection.

"The Special Task Force (STF) arrested four persons today (Friday) morning for killing a scrap dealer and gang raping his mother, wife, sister and sister-in-law, two km from Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway on Thursday," an STF official told IANS.

He identified the arrested as Hazi, Munna, Wahim. The fourth person is yet to be identified.

Said to be neighbours of the victim's family, they are being questioned by the STF officials.

The arrests were made on the basis of statements given by the women, who have undergone medical examination, he said.

The crime took place some 60 km from here on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway around 1.30 a.m. on Thursday when eight members of the Greater Noida-based family, including the four women, were headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative.

According to the victims, six armed men forced their Eeco van to stop by shooting at its tyres near Sabota village. The armed men then gang raped the women at gunpoint in a nearby field.

When scrap dealer Shakeel Qureshi, 40, put up resistance, the men shot him dead. The victims were also looted of their valuables, mobile phones and Rs 47,000, police said.