The son of Telco-based shopkeeper Shivji Prasad, who was found dead on January 6, was arrested in Jamshedpur on Friday for conspiring the murder over property.
Jitendra Kumar (34) had taken the help of three friends to execute the murder. Rahul Lohar (28), a resident of Hurlung, Birsanagar; Sarbjit Singh, alias Suraj (35), of Tinplate in Golmuri; and Lakbir Singh Atwal, alias Lucky (32), hailing from Birsanagar - were arrested along with Kumar.
Prasad (60), a resident of Birsanagar, was found lying in a pool of blood in front of his shop near Suraj Petrol Pump in Telco at 5.20am on January 6. A Tata Motors private patrol team had spotted him and rushed him to the nearby company hospital, where he succumbed within an hour.
SSP Anoop T Mathew said that Jitendra was the sixth of Prasad's seven children.
"He used to run the betel-cum-confectionary shop along with his father. He often quarrelled with his father as he wanted to run the shop alone and pocket the earnings. When that didn't happen, he planned to kill his father and promised Rs 50,000 to his friends to carry out the crime."
On January 6, when Prasad left his Birsanagar house, Jitendra alerted his friends. When Prasad reached his Telco shop, Suraj fired two bullets at the elderly man. The trio then fled. To avoid any suspicion, Jitendra quickly reached the spot and took his father to hospital. He later lodged a complaint at Telco thana.
Police also recovered a pistol and two cell phones from the arrested. "After scanning the call records on Jitandra's cell phone, we got to know about his three friends whom he called just before the murder. After grilling them for hours, they admitted to the crime," said the SSP.
Another police officer said that they started suspecting Jitendra from Day One.
"When Prasad was rushed to Tata Motors Hospital, the doctors were not sure till 7.45am whether he had sustained bullet or knife injury. But by 7.05am, Jitendra had already informed his family that his father was shot at. It was then that we started questioning him as he was so confident about the mode of killing. He finally gave in," said the officer.
