Patna, Jan. 8: Three supari (contract) killers, owing allegiance to the notorious Shambhu-Mantu gang, were arrested during a joint operation carried out by Special Task Force (STF) and district police in Nawada today.
One looted carbine, a semi-automatic rifle and 79 rounds of ammunition were seized during the raid.
Inspector-general (IG), operations, Kumar Rajesh Chandra said the police received a tip-off that a few members of an inter-state gang were chalking out a strategy to commit a crime. Based on the information about the location of the gang, the joint team conducted a raid at Uttari village under Warsaliganj police station in Nawada. Three contract killers —Pankaj Kumar, Sanjiv Kumar and Prabhashankar — were arrested in the raid.
The three are suspected to be active members of the Shambhu-Mantu gang, the IG said. The criminals used to extort money from contractors engaged in carrying out construction work in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Saran districts. Chandra said the Shambhu-Mantu gang was involved in the murder of an engineer posted with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) at Rajiv Nagar in Patna, a few months ago.
“While the two kingpins — Shambhu and Mantu — negotiated the murder contracts through cellphones, their associates executed the plan,” the IG said. Nawada superintendent of police P.K. Das told The Telegraph that efforts were on to ascertain the place from where the gangsters snatched the carbine. (The weapon is not supplied to civilians). “We have circulated the number of the seized weapons to ordinance factories that supply firearms to the security forces,” he added.
Sources said over a dozen criminals hailing from Patna and Jehanabad had assembled at the house of Sanjiv Kumar on the occasion of the first birthday of his brother Anjani’s son on Saturday. While the three fell into the police dragnet, the others managed to escape.
In a similar operation, the Rohtas police arrested an arms’ supplier Tuntun Khan and seized four country-made pistols and 10 rounds of ammunition. Khan, a resident of Samastipur, was involved in over a dozen cases lodged in Muzaffarpur and Samastipur police stations.
Rohtas superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said Khan, an active member of an inter-state gang, was produced in the Sasaram court, which remanded him in judicial custody for two weeks.
