A bullet at the spot where TV cameraman Sriniwas Sonkar was killed on Saturday. (Pankaj Priyadarshi)

In a fresh twist to the April 21 murder of Sriniwas Sonkar, Ramgarh police on Wednesday claimed to have chanced upon some “startling facts” that confirm the television cameraman’s criminal antecedents, particularly his links with a jailed gangster.

The 39-year-old, who worked with a Ranchi-based Hindi news channel, was killed by three men on a bike at a market near Jhanda Chowk while he was returning home with wife Simran. The assailants had pumped in four bullets into his body, but left his wife unhurt. The cameraman was rushed to hospital, but declared brought dead.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ramgarh SP Anis Gupta said they had recently grilled veteran coal belt don Sushil Srivastava, currently lodged at Jai Prakash Narayan Central Jail in Hazaribagh, and the latter had admitted that Sonkar worked for him.

Srivastava told the police that Sonkar, despite his association with a news channel, acted as his khabri, providing information on the business community as well as movement of police.

“We have received startling facts on Sonkar and the only thing that becomes clear is that he had strong criminal links,” Gupta said, refusing to divulge further details. He added: “We are surprised to know that he (Sonkar) was involved in wrongdoings (from inking dubious land deals to blackmailing businessmen, according to sources) for which he used his media connections.”

Sources in the police said a journalist, whose name was being withheld for the sake of investigations, might be interrogated soon.

They said though Sonkar was associated with the news channel for three years, he would not have been able to dig out information about police alone. “Some more people in his profession (read media) were helping him,” a source pointed out.

A police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said Srivastava had admitted to paying Sonkar a remuneration of Rs 20,000 a month to work for him.

“The gangster has also revealed the name of a journalist who was helping the cameraman. We are collecting more evidence and will quiz this journalist,” he added.

Sources said Srivastava was also paying Rs 6,000 a month to a female friend of Sonkar.

“The gangster, in fact, spent Rs 5 lakh a month in Ramgarh’s various pockets to keep informers like Sonkar and his friends,” a source said.

SP Gupta reiterated that they had chanced upon several such evidence to confirm Sonkar’s criminal past and the probe into his murder case would be over in a couple of days.

Police are working on various angles like whether Srivastava’s shooters eliminated Sonkar or the gangster’s rivals killed him. Several SIM cards have been recovered from Sonkar’s house, while his wife confirmed that he often returned home with wads of cash, but never told her where or how he got them.

“Besides criminal links, he was also into relationships with many women. We are probing all angles to track down the killers,” a police officer added.