Three more persons were arrested from Ranchi and Lohardaga districts on Thursday for the brutal murder of a young jeweller in the capital who had refused to bend to a land broker's bullying ways.

Police found victim Sudhir Soni's wallet on Guddu Sao, Budhram Oraon and Arjun Oraon, besides a countrymade pistol, two live cartridges, five mobile phone handsets and a bike. Five other members of the inter-district gang, hired by the already arrested broker, are on the run.

Soni (30), a resident of Edalhatu under Bariatu police station was found dead in his car - head and toes battered, and hands tied with a kerchief - behind the picturesque Tagore Hill, a stone's throw from his residence, on April 11 evening.

Local toughie Md Shamim (45) was arrested the next morning based on the FIR lodged by the jeweller's family. He was forwarded to Birsa Munda Central Jail.

City SP Jaya Roy said three of the broker's aides were tracked through phone surveillance. "We had put Shamim's call records under the lens. We rounded up Guddu from Lohardaga and the others from Morabadi in Ranchi. They were planning hits on Om Jewellers in Kokar and a cement wholesaler in Chiraundi," she said.

Guddu was the logistics expert of the gang whose five other members - Pintu, Anil, Sanjay, Ravi and Rajesh - are absconding, she added.

Police did not furnish any motive other than the initial realty dispute that had surfaced after the body was found.

Apparently, Soni's shop, Abhushan Alankar, was in a building a portion of which Shamim had bought six years ago. The broker had wanted Soni to vacate his shop, but the latter had refused, inviting Shamim's ire.