Four sharpshooters who shot dead a railway contractor and fatally injured his relative in Bokaro in January have been arrested from the steel city and different parts of Bihar over the past three days.
The mastermind of the attack and another aide who hired the quartet for Rs 2 lakh to eliminate Virendra Singh (40), an Adra railway division contractor and resident of Sector IX in Bokaro, are still on the run, police said on Thursday, pegging business rivalry as the motive.
SP Y.S. Ramesh said two bikes and two pistols used in the January 27 attack had been found on two of the sharpshooters who had received Rs 25,000 in advance for the job.
The arrested men have been identified as Munna Singh and Ravi Kumar Chowdhry of Sector VIII-B, Bhushan Kumar of Sector IX-B and Manoj Paswan of Sector VIII-C and Sector 8B.
"These men are in their early thirties and originally hail from Bihar. They have been staying in Bokaro for the past few years. All are history-sheeters and have criminal cases pending against them at various police stations of Bokaro and Dhanbad," the SP said.
A source in police said Munna was the first to be arrested from Bokaro on Monday. "He spilled the beans and Bhushan was picked up from Gaya, Ravi from Rohtas and Manoj from Muzaffarpur, all in Bihar, over the next two days. They were brought to Bokaro on transit remand on Wednesday and have confessed to their crime," he added.
The two bikes, a 7.62 bore pistol and two cartridges were found on Manoj while the pistol of .315 bore belonged to Bhushan. Mastermind Arzoo Mallick, who lives in Shivandih in the city but is a native of Munger, Bihar, provided the men with the firearms. Arzoo and aide Tabrak Ansari are absconding.
On January 27 morning, Virendra and his brother-in-law Ramu Singh were returning home from the vegetable market when they were shot at near Hatia More. While the contractor died on the spot, Ramu was referred to RIMS in Ranchi. He too succumbed to his wound on February 12.
SP Ramesh said business rivalry seemed the primary motive. Once upon a time in Bokaro, Virendra and Arzoo worked under heavyweight railway contractor Amrendra Tewary. The two had helped Tewary bag several contracts in Adra division, by hook or crook.
However, in recent times, Virendra had separated ways from his mentor and launched his own business, which antagonised Arzoo.
In January, Arzoo had warned Virendra not to file tender for a particular plum job in Adra. The latter ignored the warning and paid with his life, the SP said.
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"We constituted a special task force of three DSPs, two inspectors and three OCs. The shooters have been arrested. Their kingpin (Arzoo) will be nabbed too. Raid teams have been sent to possible hideouts," he added.
