Kelantan police chief Yusoff Mamat said investigators believe the victim was fatally stabbed by her 19-year-old boyfriend – one of the suspects arrested earlier – following an argument, Berita Harian reported.

“Police believe jealousy was the motive. Preliminary investigations indicate an argument broke out between the victim and the suspect before her death.

“She is believed to have been stabbed while inside the suspect’s car,” he was quoted as saying.

Police arrested three men and one woman, including two senior citizens, in raids on two separate locations in Ketereh yesterday.

The two senior citizens were remanded for three days while the other two, in their teens, were remanded for seven days.

Police also seized a knife believed to have been used in the incident, along with two cars, two mobile phones, a set of clothing and a pair of slippers, among other things.

Police had suspected that the victim, a third-semester student at a local college from Perak, was killed at another location before her body was dumped near a padi field in Kampung Simah.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and her body was sent to the forensic department at Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II in Kota Bharu, where a post-mortem confirmed multiple stab wounds to the chest as the cause of death.