Hazaribagh, June 9: Police are in the last stages of investigations in the killing of Ramgarh don Sushil Srivastava, piecing together crucial information revealed by Santosh Pandey, the No. 2 in rival Bhola Pandey gang who was arrested from Patna on Sunday.

During interrogations by a team led by Hazaribagh superintendent of police (SP) Akhilesh Kumar Jha and his Ramgarh counterpart M. Tamilvanan at Sadar police station late last night, Santosh reportedly identified one of the two shooters hired from Uttar Pradesh to pull off the audacious June 2 attack on Hazaribagh civil court premises as Bablu Thakur.

The trusted lieutenant of Bhola Pandey gang's current kingpin Vikas Tiwary, Santosh also identified the AK-47 left by one of the assailants at the court while fleeing, saying that Thakur had arranged it to execute the murder plan even though the gang also had similar rifles.

The AK-47 was even tested on the banks of Damodar at Patratu, Ramgarh, in the presence of gang members.

He further told police that six teams were pressed into action to help the killers and Vikas, who was also on the court premises (it's not still clear whether he was the other shooter), escape after the attack that also killed Srivastava's two henchmen and injured a policeman.

"Santosh has revealed a great deal of information that will help us crack the case. We have already put all the pieces together and are now waiting to arrest Vikas and the shooters," a policeman, who is part of the investigation team, told The Telegraph this afternoon.

Adding that Santosh had confirmed what they believed all along - Srivastava paid the price for orchestrating the murders of his erstwhile underworld mentor Bhola Pandey in 2010 and his nephew and heir Kishore Pandey last year - the officer said Santosh attended a meeting to plan the murder 15 days before the attack.

"His father, Yogendra Pandey, was a railway employee posted in Patratu. Initially, Santosh tried his luck in business, but then came in contact with Kishore and later became an important member of the gang. Kishore and other members used to call him Dada. When Kishore was murdered at Kadma in Jamshedpur last October, Santosh vowed to kill Srivastava," the officer said.

Another officer said tracking of mobile calls revealed that immediately after Srivastava's murder, Vikas called up Santosh and gave him the "good news". Santosh called up other gang members in Patratu and asked them to celebrate with crackers and sweets.

"It was almost clear to us from the very first day that the Bhola Pandey gang was behind the murders. But it was a challenge to collect strong evidence. Information revealed by Santosh will be very useful in that respect. We have arrived at a conclusion and are waiting to nab Vikas and the shooters," he added.

SP Jha said: "Investigations are in the final stage. Revealing anything at this juncture will affect the probe."

Santosh was produced in court today and sent to Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan Central Jail.

Apart from Santosh, three others have been arrested so far in the case. They are Vikas's father Shambhunath Tiwary, Vishal Kumar - whose calls were traced to the gang - and one Sudhir Pandey.