Patna: Police arrested four criminals who were involved in the murder of notorious criminal Guddu Singh on the Barh civil court premises last year.

Guddu was shot dead on September 8; two other undertrials sustained gunshot injuries.

Guddu, who was lodged in the Barh jail, had been brought to the civil court in connection with the hearing of a case. As he was about to be produced in the court, some persons sprayed bullets which hit Guddu.

Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj had constituted a team headed by the Patna SP (rural), ASP Barh and the station house officer of Barh police station.

"A gang led by a criminal, Manoj Singh, was behind the incident. Manoj had asked his gang members to kill Guddu," Maharaaj said.

During investigations, Patna police learnt that some members of the Manoj Singh gang had assembled at Nisarpur Bagicha under Naubatpur police station area and were planning to execute a criminal act. The criminals, on seeing the police, tried to escape but were caught.

Among those arrested are Rahul Kumar a resident of Maner, Vidha Kumar and Bittu Singh of Naubatpur and Dhanit Singh of Bihta. The police also recovered three pistols, seven live cartridges and four mobile phones from their possession.

The arrested criminals confessed before police that Manoj Singh had given them a contract to kill Guddu. Police sources said Manoj is a notorious criminal of Bihta, Maner and Naubatpur areas.

He was involved in several incidents of loot and robbery and had demanded ransom from traders of Bihta and Naubatpur.

Sources said the murder of Guddu was the outcome of rivalry between the gang members of Manoj and Guddu.

Guddu had two dozen cases of murder, loot and extortion registered against him. He was lodged in Barh jail but was operating from inside the prison, sources said.