The four arrested persons at the Bakhtiyarpur police station in Patna rural on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Timely police action saved the life of a plywood trader in the city.

Acting swiftly on a tip-off that a gang of criminals was on way to the city from Begusarai to kill the trader, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaj asked the Bakhtiyarpur police station house officer Mritunjay Kumar to intercept a red car moving towards the city from the Ghoswari side.

As the car was about to reach Bakhtiyarpur, a police team headed by Kumar signalled its driver to stop. When the driver tried to escape with the three other occupants in the car, the police stopped the vehicle at gunpoint on the National Highway 30.

A country-made pistol, three live cartridges and three cellphones were seized from the possession of the four middle-aged persons. Initially, the arrested persons tried to mislead the police but they later succumbed to the pressure and spilled the beans.

The arrested persons were identified as Ravishankar Kumar alias Prince, Abhishek Gupta, Avanish Kumar and Ashish Kumar. While Ravishankar is a resident of Chhapra in Saran district, his three associates are said to be the residents of Sarvodya Nagar in Begusarai district, around 120km northeast of Patna.

During interrogation, the arrested criminals revealed that they had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Murari Singh, a plywood trader of the city. Singh’s showroom is at Anisabad under the jurisdiction of Gardanibagh police station.

Manu said one of the arrested criminals — Ashish — had criminal antecedents and a case was pending against him in Begusarai. “The criminal antecedents of three others were being ascertained,” he said, adding had the police not swung into action, the arrested persons would have successfully carried out the operation.

The SSP said Ravishankar is the brother in-law of Singh, the trader. “But Singh is not on good terms with his brother-in-law, who allegedly chalked out the strategy to commit the crime. Family feud is believed to be the reason behind the murder plot,” he said.

The officer said this was not the first instance of criminals from outside being arrested for trying to commit crime in the city. “A number of people come to the city from outside every day. So such things do happen. The only thing we can do is to take precautionary measures,” he told The Telegraph.

The arrested youths were produced before the court after preliminary interrogation. The court forwarded them to judicial custody for 14 days.