Mumbai, Feb. 18: A sniffer dog has solved the murder of a 67-year-old woman, helping trace the killers to Orissa from a bouquet they had left behind in her flat, police said today.

The dog followed the scent to a florist’s shop near the Worli Seaface apartment of Kiran Khanna, where the former censor board member had been left fatally wounded during a robbery on February 4.

Sketches were drawn based on the florist’s description of the buyers, and the arrests were made in Dhenkanal several hundred miles away.

The accused are four migrant workers from the Orissa district — including Kiran’s 15-year-old hand Deepak Bharik and two drivers — who had left for home after the crime. One of the drivers, Girish Behera, 25, worked in a neighbouring building.

Deepak had told the police that two persons had arrived with a bouquet and beat him unconscious. When he came to, he found Kiran bleeding in the bathroom. She died in Jaslok hospital that night.

The police said Bharik, hired by Kiran and husband K.N. Khanna in November 2007, had told the group that Rs 60 lakh in cash and jewellery was stashed away in the flat.

On February 4 afternoon, Girish bought the bouquet and gained entry into the complex on the pretext of delivering it. A few minutes later, Sudhir Behera, 23, arrived posing as a courier delivery boy.

The two entered the flat and landed a few punches on Bharik, who pretended he had passed out. They then attacked Kiran, locked her in the bathroom and began looting the cash and jewellery. When Kiran tried to raise the alarm, they beat her again.

Officers said the accused split their booty, worth Rs 10.10 lakh, and separately travelled to Nashik, Nagpur and Raipur before reaching Dhenkanal. Gullu Sahu, 24, is the fourth man arrested. The police are looking for a fifth accused, Gullu Behera.

The police also claimed to have solved the February 15 murder of an elderly couple at their Santacruz flat. The killer had burnt parts of the remains of Dilip Randheri, 72, and Varsha, 62.

Their domestic help Sandeep Mahingade, 29, was arrested from a jungle in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. He allegedly killed the couple in a fit of rage after they refused his demands for a Rs 25,000 loan.