Ranchi, May 18: Police today arrested Suresh Chandra Jha alias Muchchad Jha and Peter Anand Kumar Suri, accused in the Rajeev Gupta murder case. They are now searching for the main accused, Sanjeev Singh.
While Jha is a resident of Kishoreganj Road Number 2, under the Kotwali police station, Peter lives in Tetar Toli under Namkum police station.
Rajeev Gupta was killed around 9 pm, on May 14, near his residence at S.N. Ganguly Road when he was returning from his medicine store, Gupta Bhandar. He was shot twice at point-blank range.
According to Ranchi senior superintendent of police, Anurag Gupta, the police explored three motives to trace the murderers.
The first floor of Gupta?s shop had a gym owned by a certain Munna and relations between the two embittered when Munna owed Gupta about Rs 1.4 lakh.
Chandu Panday, a hardcore criminal, who had been to jail for five to six times, had also evoked suspicion with the police as he approached Gupta for a land deal.
But the final perspective, which yielded the police the prize catches, was the land deal with Suresh Chandra Jha, in which Gupta was involved as a middleman along with his associates B.N. Singh, Islam from Hindpiri, Nanhe from Karbala Chowk and Peter from Namkum.
According to the police, 72 kathas of land, located in front of the Bariatu firing range, was supposed to be sold to Rajiv Budhia and one Chatterjee babu. Rajiv and his associates were to have a share of Rs 14 lakh in the deal. The buyers had already paid them a cheque of Rs 25 lakh, but the cheque bounced. Later, Budhia and Chatterjee decided not to buy the plot.
According to the police, Gupta planned to usurp the commission, sharing the money only with Jha. Jha, on the other hand, spilled the beans to Peter. Peter, in his turn decided to murder Gupta and clear his way.
Peter and Jha together hatched the plan of murdering Gupta. They hired Sanjeev Singh, a shooter, for the purpose. Meanwhile, Peter, to cook up his alibi, got himself admitted to Seva Sadan Nursing Home, feigning an illness. The police tracked him down and arrested him from there.
