Patna, Dec. 12: Police have identified the gang involved in the murder of ATM security guard Kundan Kumar Malakar.

Malakar, 45, was hacked to death by unidentified criminals when he was on duty at an automated teller machine (ATM) at Maurya Lok Complex in the wee hours of Saturday.

A police officer associated with the investigation today said the special investigation team, which had been constituted to probe the case, has zeroed in on the gang involved in the crime.

The special investigation team picked up one more suspect for interrogation today.

"We are close to cracking the case. The murder weapon has been recovered. Efforts are on to nail the culprits," said acting senior superintendent of police Ravindra Kumar Singh. He added that locals were involved in the crime.

Police sources said Malakar was last seen at a nearby tea stall around 1am on Sunday, which suggested that the incident occurred between 1am and 2am.

A tea stall owner said Malakar had visited his stall around 1am on the fateful day.

The special investigation team also recovered a SIM card from the ATM where he was deployed. The SIM of a private cellular company was issued in the name of Malakar.

"We are trying to obtain the call records of the seized SIM," an investigating officer said.

The police suspected that a criminal gang operating in Mandiri was involved in the crime. The dog squad, which was pressed into service to recover the murder weapon (sword), traced the last location of the suspected killers at a biscuit factory in Mandiri, the police officer told The Telegraph.

The police conducted raids at different hideouts of the gang in Mandiri and other localities in Patna but nobody could be arrested.