Patna, Oct. 19: Police today claimed to have nabbed the persons involved in the daylight murder of contractor Basant Kumar Singh five days after the 40-year-old was killed at the Central Public Works Department office.

Although no officer came on record confirming the arrests, sources told The Telegraph that the men in uniform have been successful in nabbing a group of men, including Ranjit Sonar, said to be the main conspirator behind the murder.

All that the cops said was they were very close and a breakthrough was possible at any moment. The sources said one of the police teams formed in order to crack the case had managed to arrest Sonar and his men this morning and they were being brought to the state capital for interrogations.

Basant, a Grade V contractor with the CPWD, was shot dead last Friday on the first floor of the central government office in the Punaichak area under Shastrinagar police station by at least four criminals.

“The police had formed many teams for investigating the case and arrest those involved. One of the teams managed to arrest Sonar, a dreaded gangster involved in extorting CPWD contractors. The men were arrested from the Bihar-Jharkhand border and are being brought to Patna now. No more details can be divulged,” a senior police officer told The Telegraph.

On Monday, Patna senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar had confirmed that the police had identified the persons involved in Basant’s murder and police teams were conducting raids at different places in a bid to nab them.

Police sources added that the men would be first questioned for more information about the modus operandi of extorting CPWD contractors.

“Murders for contracts have been common and the police want to have definite information about the modus operandi. The police will announce the details very soon now,” the officer added.

Earlier, police sources had said that the main suspects in the murder were two gangs — one run by Sambhu and Mantu and the other by Ranjit Sonar.

“Both gangs are quite deadly and both the kingpins have been out of police reach for a long time now. They are active in the business of extortion related to CPWD contracts. Contractors have to pay a part of the money of the total contract amount to them,” another police officer had said a day after Basant’s murder.

“The murder can also be the result of a tussle between two gangs over the contract,” the police officer had said.

Basant was engaged in the renovation of the excise and custom department building at Mokama, around 100km from the state capital. He had come down to the CPWD office on his bike last Friday to meet Manoj Kumar Singh, a junior engineer. Around 2pm, Basant stepped out of Singh’s cabin, right beside the staircase. All of a sudden, two persons fired at him from point-blank range.

As Basant slumped to the ground, bleeding profusely, the assailants ran down the stairs unchallenged where two of their associates were waiting. The four persons darted towards the parking lot, where they got on two motorcycles and sped away towards Punaichak, the police said.

Basant, who suffered five bullet injuries, died on the spot.