Patna: The Sitamarhi police on Wednesday claimed to have solved the mystery behind the killing of district welfare officer Shubh Narian Dutt after the arrest of three persons, including the contract killer Ramji Rai from Patna.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Sitamarhi police and the Patna police conducted a raid at Digha in the state capital early Wednesday morning and arrested Ramji who had taken shelter in the house of his accomplice Sohan Thakur.

The raiding team found a 9mm pistol from the possession of Ramji, who is facing at least nine cases of murder, loot and extortion in Sitamarhi. The police suspected that the seized weapon was used to eliminate the district welfare officer on May 31.

Sitamarhi superintendent of police Vikas Burman said Ramji's associate identified as Arun Bhagat was arrested from his house in the district headquarters town on the basis of information given by Ramji. However, an Urdu teacher Mohammad Ali is evading arrest.

Burman said Ali, also called Babloo, who was allegedly involved in irregularities in the disbursement of scholarships to students belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Castes. He was also stated to be involved in other illegal works, he added.

The members of the special investigation team set up to crack the murder case also found incriminating documents related to different schemes of the government and cheque books of banks during the search of his house at Rajupatti in Sitamarhi.

The SP said Ali had given a supari (contract) of Rs 5 lakh to Ramji for the murder of the district welfare officer as his work was getting hampered because of the DWO's strictness and honesty. Ali had given Rs 2 lakh as advance to the contract killer, he added.

The SIT also picked up another suspect for interrogation in the case. The SP, however, didn't rule out the involvement of the gang led by incarcerated ganglord Santosh Jha.

"The role of the shooters of the gang led by Santosh is under the scanner of the SIT," he said over phone.