Divers deployed by Calcutta Police search Subhash Sarobar on Tuesday for clues to the Arvind Bhai murder. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) claimed to have achieved a ?breakthrough? in the Arvind Bhai murder case on Tuesday, with recovery of three country-made pistols and a revolver from a bag found close to a blind lane in Phoolbagan.

One of the arms, the CID said, was used to kill Arvind, who had played a key role in the abduction of Roma Jhawar from Salt Lake.

Police also recovered some bullets and an adhesive plaster from the bag, suggesting that Gunjan and his gang had planned to gag Roma if she created any problem while in their custody.

?The recovery of the arms is a breakthrough. We have been desperately looking for them,? said Rajeev Kumar, deputy inspector-general, CID (organisation).

The breakthrough came late in the afternoon, following an intense grilling of Guddu, the owner of a garage in Kadapara, and a member of the abduction gang. It was in Guddu?s garage that Roma was kept confined on the night of February 4, before she was released by the abductors.

Breaking down during the interrogation at Phoolbagan police station, Guddu took some officers to the blind lane, off Ghore Bibi Lane and Lower Canal Lane, and showed them the bag.

Earlier in the day, police in West Midnapore arrested a man in Sabong, suspecting him to be Pappu Yadav, another accused in the Roma abduction case.

Local residents informed police about the man, who has tattoos on him, after spotting him moving around ?aimlessly? near Mohar market.

During interrogation, he identified himself as Bapi Kiran, a resident of Orissa.

Asked how he could speak such chaste Bengali, he said he had worked for some time at a sweet shop in Calcutta.

Local resident Ananta Khatua said the villagers were aware that the police had been combing the area for a few days in search of Pappu.

?We have seen Pappu?s photographs in newspapers. His similarities with this man are too glaring to miss. Besides, this man had been roaming suspiciously in the locality. He once told a resident that he wanted to marry a girl from the village and settle down here,? said Khatua.

CID officers were cautious in their statements.

A team has been sent to Midnapore and senior officers said they would not like to jump to conclusions.