Patna: The Lakhisarai district police on Sunday arrested four criminals wanted for an attack on a police team earlier this year, including the kingpin of the gang Bharat Singh, and seized a carbine and other ammunition in Jharkhand's Dumka district on Sunday.

Bharat Singh, Markandey Pandey, Amit Kumar and Munchun Singh were wanted in connection with an attack on a police team at Jaitpur in Lakhisarai district during an operation on February 18 this year.

Additional director-general (headquarters) S.K. Singhal said acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the Bihar police special task force and the Lakhisarai police raided the hideout of the gangsters at Sonadhabh under the jurisdiction of Shikaripara police station in Dumka and nabbed the four gangsters.

The arrested criminals, stated to be residents of Jaitpur village under the jurisdiction of Barahiya police station in Lakhisarai district, around 136km south-east of Patna, were brought to Lakhisarai on transit remand.

The police later raided in Jaitpur and recovered a country-made carbine from Markandey's house.

On February 18, the police had recovered a looted carbine, a regular rifle, two country-made pistols, two loaded AK-47 magazines, three mobile phones and 13 live cartridges from Jaitpur village. Two associates of Bharat were arrested after a brief gun battle.

The duo arrested then - Kundan Singh (30) and Pramod Singh (34) - are learnt to have told the police that eight members of the gang had assembled at the village to loot farmers' crops in the river area and also grab their land. However, other members of the gang managed to escape the police net on Sunday. Kundan and Pramod have also revealed that the gang had links with a controversial politician of UP.

Lakhisarai superintendent of police Arvind Thakur said the operation against the gangs would continue. He said one Munchun alias Langra was wanted in connection with a kidnapping case in Deoghar in Jharkhand in 2009.

In another raid, the police arrested a sharpshooter, Tapesh Mandal, from East Colony police station area in Munger district.

Mandal, a resident of Nayatola Fulka under the jurisdiction of Jamalpur police station in Munger district, was wanted in connection with a double murder case.