Patna: The Bihar police's special task force (STF) on Thursday arrested sharpshooter Harish Kumar Singh a.k.a. Hari Singh, a close associate of incarcerated don of Jharkhand Akhilesh Singh, from a flat in the city where he was hiding in relative anonymity ever since his name figured in an audacious court murder in Jharkhand over a year ago.

Harish is wanted in connection with the daylight murder of former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Upendra Singh on the Jamshedpur civil court premises on November 30, 2016.

An STF team led by superintendent of police (SP) Ranjeet Kumar Mishra, acting on a tip-off, raided an apartment located near LCT Ghat under the jurisdiction of Patliputra police station in the capital and took Harish, 35, into custody. The sharpshooter was unarmed.

Harish, a native of Bhojpur district in Bihar, was hiding in Patna ever since his name figured in the audacious murder of the former JMM leader.

Harish, a police source said, was with his wife in the flat when the police team arrested him. Inspector-general of police (IG), operations, Kundan Krishnan confirmed the arrest of Harish, a member of the Akhilesh Singh gang. Harish, the IG said, confessed to involvement in the killing of Upendra Singh over a business rivalry.

"We have handed him (Harish) over to the Jharkhand police as no case was pending against him in Bihar. He will be taken to Jamshedpur on transit remand," Kundan said, adding that over a dozen cases are pending against Harish in Jharkhand.

The inhabitants of the Gangotri Apartment near LCT Ghat on Gandhi Maidan-Danapur road were taken aback when they came to know about Harish's involvement in the sensational murder case.

"He never behaved like a don," a resident of the apartment said, requesting anonymity.

Harish had hired the flat on rent about a year ago, apparently through a local property dealer.

"Nobody suspected him. Most of the time he used to stay inside the flat," said a security guard at the apartment.

STF SP Ranjeet Mishra said: "Initially he (Harish) tried to mislead the police by disclosing a wrong identity. But we had enough evidence which helped the police ascertain his real identity."

Harish, SP Mishra said, is considered the most trusted shooter in the Akhilesh Singh gang. His name figures among the top 10 wanted gangsters of Jharkhand. His mentor-cum-kingpin of the gang, Akhilesh, was arrested from Gurgaon in Haryana after a shootout with police in October last year.

During interrogation, Harish is learnt to have revealed that Upendra Singh's murder was the fallout of rivalry with his business partner Ram Sakal Yadav. Upendra owned a travel agency on the court premises and was also in the real estate business.