Rohtas police arrested two more persons, including a sharpshooter, on Tuesday for the murder of Dainik Bhaskar journalist Dharmendra Kumar Singh.

Sharpshooter Amod Kumar, the police said, confessed that he was at the crime spot when Dharmendra was shot dead at Amra Talab in Sasaram on November 12 but has claimed that a man called Sujeet Singh fired at the journalist.

Sujeet had allegedly been given the contract to kill Dharmendra - who wrote a series of reports on the mining mafia in Rohtas district, around 150km west of Patna - by mafia lord Pappu Singh, who is lodged in Sasaram jail. Sujeet is still at large.

Inspector-general (Patna zone) Nayyar Hasnain Khan, who is monitoring the investigation, said on Wednesday Amod Kumar and Binod Singh were apprehended during a raid on their hideouts in Rohtas district on Tuesday. With this, five people have been held in connection with the journalist's murder, the second senior scribe to be gunned down in Bihar in the past six months.

The police said Amod, whose name also figured in the FIR lodged by Dharmendra's brother in-law Ravindra Kumar Singh, confessed to his involvement during interrogation. "Sujeet committed the crime at the behest of his relative and jailed gangster Pappu Singh, who was unhappy with the slain journalist over some business issues," said a member of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder quoting Amod.

The officer, who didn't wish to be named as he is not authorised to speak to media, said Amod also spilled the beans on other persons involved. Manish alias Sunny Gupta, Vikas Chandrawanshi and Radhika Raman Rai have already been arrested.

Investigating officer Mukesh Kumar said apart from Sujeet, two more suspects - Bittu Singh and Anil Singh - are at large. "Raids have been carried out on their different hideous in Rohtas and adjoining districts but they couldn't be arrested," he added.

Police sources said Vikas Chandrawanshi, a resident of Amra Talab, had been assigned the task to keep close watch on Dharmendra's movement, and he had also done a recce of the spot and informed the shooters. According to investigating officials, the plot to kill Dharmendra was chalked out inside Sasaram jail where Pappu is serving sentence in a kidnapping case.

"Prima facie the incident appears to be a fall out of animosity between the slain journalist and the jailed gangster," zonal IG Khan told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

He said the SIT is on the job to crack the case. "So far, two named accused and three others have been arrested by the SIT. We hope the case will be solved soon," Khan said.

Dharmendra's wife Rinku Singh had earlier expressed displeasure with the police's failure to arrest the three shooters.

"The local police officers are working under political pressure," she said. "As a result, the arrest of the prime accused is being delayed."