Police in Araria have lodged two separate FIRs in connection with the killing of Bhargama police station house officer Pravin Kumar during an encounter with a gang of armed criminals on Tuesday.

Both the FIRs have been lodged with Raniganj police station on the statement of its in-charge Rajiv Kumar.

The first FIR deals with the attack on the Bhargama SHO Pravin in which four persons, including Bauya Rai, Panchanan Das and Prafull Kumar Yadav, have been made named accused under Sections 302, 307, 399, 304 of the IPC and relevant sections of the Arms Act.

According to the FIR, Bauya Rai, a resident of Madhepura, fired at the slain SHO when he had gone to arrest him. Bauya, however, managed to escape after the incident. His two associates - Panchanan Das and Prafulla Kumar Yadav - were arrested on Tuesday.

The second FIR is related to the seizure of a towel, two motorbikes, used cartridges from the premises of Beltara Government High School on Tuesday evening. The police had seized two country-made pistols from the possession of arrested criminals - Prafull and Panchanan - who were sent to jail on Wednesday.

Araria SP Vijay Kumar Verma said the raids were on to nab the criminals involved in the SHO murder. Police teams have been sent to neighbouring districts on the basis of intelligence inputs, he said.

DIG (Purnea) Ram Narayan Singh said a joint police team of Araria and Madhepura headed by DSP-rank officer Ajit Kumar Singh had been assigned to nab the criminals.