Darbhanga police nabbed a sharpshooter Kartar Singh alias Upendra Singh Thakur, who had unleashed a reign of terror in six districts in north Bihar for about three decades.

A special police team (SIT), headed by additional superintendent of police Dilnawaz Ahmad, nabbed Kartar from Mabbi on the outskirts of Darbhanga town on Sunday night.

A haul of weapons, which included two carbines, was seized from his possession.

Darbhanga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Satyaveer Singh, describing Kartar as a prized catch for the district police, said the alleged supari (contract) killer had come to the town to commit a major crime, which the police foiled by netting him.

The SSP announced a reward for the members of the team, which nabbed Kartar.

Kartar, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, has reportedly confessed to his crimes.

Admitting his role in the murder of Darbhanga trader Hira Paswan, Kartar revealed to interrogators that several cases of murder and extortion were pending against him in Darbhanga, Madhubani and Patna districts.

Sources in the police said Kartar's professional transition from a truck driver to a contract killer is quite interesting. He fired at his uncle with a country-made revolver in Kishtwar district of J&K in the early-1990s. As his uncle survived the attack, so Kartar had to leave home.

He turned to driving. In course of time, he came in contact with Bhushan Singh, a native of Begusarai district. Both Bhushan and Kartar soon became friends and Kartar later visited his friend's house at Bachhwara. There, he met Bipin Singh, a dreaded don of the region. "It was a turning point in my life," Kartar reportedly told interrogators.

Inspired by Bipin's clout, Kartar joined his gang. Bhushan too left the job and became an aide of the kingpin, who used to take supari (contract) for executing murders in Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai and Madhubani. "I worked as the bodyguard of Bhushan and then Bipin. Later, I was assigned specific tasks and thus won the confidence of the ganglord. Later, Bipin and I started a transport company, Singh Transport Company, in Darbhanga. In 2008, Bipin surrendered before the police and I took command of the group," Kartar in his early-fifties told interrogators.

While being grilled, Kartar revealed that he had killed Majit Singh, a CPI-ML(Liberation) leader and labour supplier to the company, following a dispute. He was also involved in indiscriminate firing in front of a petrol outlet at Laheriasarai in Darbhanga in 1997. In 2001, he murdered two contractors, Anil Jha in Darhar village and Babu Saheb Jha in Kabilpur village.

A Darbhanga court remanded him in judicial custody for two weeks on Monday.