Police on Wednesday arrested a professional killer and claimed to have solved the murders of three police officers, two of whose weapons had been looted.

All three murders had happened last year.

The gunman was arrested an area under the jurisdiction of Barh sub-division in Patna rural.

Police said that Rajnish Kumar, a resident of Anandgolba village under the jurisdiction of Mohiuddin Nagar police station in neighbouring Samastipur district, was nabbed after a brief gun battle with cops at Barh.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said Rajnish's two brothers - Lallan and Manish - were earlier arrested from their native village for involvement in the loot of Rs 60 lakh from the Punjab National Bank cash van under the jurisdiction of Belchhi police on March 6 this year.

Three persons - two private security guards and the driver of the vehicle that was being used for transportation of the cash from the bank - were killed in the incident.

The SSP said the arrested criminal also confessed to his involvement in the loot of cash from Sohsarai police station area in Nalanda district.

Rajnish is learnt to have told his interrogators that he and his associates had killed two assistant sub-inspectors to rob them of their service revolvers and a 9mm pistol.

While Muneshwar Prasad Singh, an assistant sub-inspector of police, was killed on March 16 last year, criminals had gunned down another policeman, R.R. Choudhary, on September 24 last year.

In both the incidents, the assailants took away the policemen's weapons.

"The police seized a revolver of .32 bore and two 9mm pistols from different places on information given by Rajnish," the SSP said.

He added that another police officer, Suresh Thakur, was gunned down by members of the gang on April 18 last year.

"With Rajnish's arrest, we have solved all the three cases of murder of police officials who fell victims to the gang led by Rajnish," the SSP said.

Rajesh Kumar, yet another brother of Rajnish, is still evading arrest in the Belchhi cash van loot case.

The police have also launched a search for the arrest of Rajnish's relative Deepak, who they believe had assisted him the cash van loot in Belchhi.

Apart from the three weapons that were looted from the murdered police officers, the police seized Rs 1 lakh cash and live cartridges from Rajnish's possession.