Patna, Dec. 11: The Kotwali police on Sunday picked up two suspects and found an iron rod and a sword that they said was used to slit the throat of Kundan Kumar Malakar, the ATM security guard.
Malakar, 45, a resident of Golghar in Patna, was killed while resisting a robbery bid in an automated teller machine (ATM) at Maurya Lok Complex under the jurisdiction of Kotwali police station in the wee hours of Saturday.
Newly appointed station house officer (SHO) of Kotwali, Ramashankar Singh, confirmed the seizure of the blood-stained sword from a place near Patna Museum on Buddha Marg. A dog squad was pressed into service to trace the weapon.
A team from the state forensic science laboratory examined the weapon and collected evidence.
"Blood stains on the weapon will be matched with those collected from the site of occurrence to ascertain the killer's identity," a member of the forensic team said.
An investigating officer said two suspects had been detained for interrogation on the basis of video clips from the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed near the old Patna Museum. A man in his early 40s had been spotted proceeding towards the ATM from the Mandiri side. The man was carrying a blanket to cover his face.
Malakar's mobile is missing after the incident. The last location of his mobile phone has been traced near Golghar, which suggested that the killers were known to him.
"We conducted raids at the possible hideouts of the criminals on the basis of scientific evidence that had been gathered by the members of the special investigation team," said additional superintendent of police (law and order) Shibli Nomani.
Nomani under whose jurisdiction the place of occurrence falls, however, refused to share details with a plea that it would affect the ongoing investigation.
The ASP didn't rule out the possibility of personal enmity the reason behind the murder.
Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj, who along with his senior Shalin (deputy inspector-general, central range), was in Amritsar to discuss issues related to security arrangements for Prakash Utsav in Patna, said the police have taken the incident as a challenge and would bring the culprits to book at the earliest.
