Ranchi: Four youths in their twenties were arrested late on Friday night and forwarded to Birsa Munda Central Jail on Saturday for killing BJP leader Dhiraj Ram (39) near his Beldar Colony home in Doranda on Wednesday morning.

Dhiraj was the president of the BJP's SC Morcha wing in Doranda.

The arrested youths have been identified as Md Ali Khan, Md Arif, Md Salman Ansari and Md Chand Ansari, all residents of Doranda. Two pistols, magazines, live bullets and mobile phones were recovered from their possession.

"We have recovered the murder weapon, too. One of the accused Ali has also confessed to having killed one Sambhu Ram in December last year under Doranda police station," Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said.

Based on intelligence inputs, police first detained Ali, who disclosed his involvement in Dhiraj's murder and revealed the name of his three associates.

The SSP said Dhiraj was gunned down because he had publicly warned Salman for teasing and stalking a girl in his locality a few months back.

"The deceased had an altercation with Salman whom he had publicly warned against stalking the girl. An angry Salman decided to teach Dhiraj a lesson and hatched the murder conspiracy with the co-accused," Gupta said.

Police said the pistols used in the murder were provided by Arif.

Dhiraj, also a sanitation worker with a private agency, had left home for morning duty around 4.30am on Wednesday.

Salman and Arif on a bike pumped four bullets into the victim while Ali kept an eye on the road.

"The accused had given the pistols to their friend Chand to keep them at a safe place. The weapons were recovered from Chand's residence at Kumhar Toli following the disclosures made by the accused," the SSP said.

Dhiraj's association with the BJP and social outfit Mahavir Mandal had made the case very sensitive and put police on toes. Ranchi SSP had roped in DSP Hatia Vikas Pandey and officer in-charge of Argora police station Ratibhan Singh to expedite the probe.

Police said in December last year Ali had shot dead one Sambhu Ram as the deceased had warned him for smoking ganja in a public place.

"In that case too Arif had provided the pistol to Ali who had returned it after use. Police had then booked Arif under the provisions of Arms Act after recovering the murder weapon from him. Now Ali has disclosed that it was he who had killed Sambhu," the SSP said.