Anand Prakash Tiwari, SSP (city), shows the photograph of the hitman on Tuesday. Picture by UB Photos

Dec. 18: After 20-days of investigation, city police yesterday arrested two persons suspected to be behind the killing of businessman Ajit Singh.

The hunt is on to nab the others involved in the crime.

Singh who owned a transport agency was shot dead near his office at Beltola Chariali on the night of November 29.

The prime accused, whose name is also Ajit Singh, is the owner of Assam-Delhi Roadways at Sarvodaya path. Last night, police raided his house and arrested him along with one his employees, Gurpesh Singh.

They found two revolvers, four rounds of ammunition and five mobile handsets. One of the revolvers was not registered, the police said.

The police claimed that Ajit was the mastermind behind the crime and had hired a professional killer — Omkar Singh Nalwa — to kill the transporter with the help of two others — Gurpesh Singh and Gurmeet Singh.

Gurpeet and Nalwa are absconding.

Senior superintendent of police (city) Anand Prakash Tiwari said the transporter was killed owing to personal enmity.

“Our crime branch team, led by additional SP Amitabh Sinha, during investigations found that the two had a business rivalry and both were trying to establish dominance in the Sikh community here. Our probe revealed that Ajit had prepared the plan and used the professional killer to execute it,” Tiwari said.

However, Ajit’s father Balbir Singh claimed that his son was innocent and they possessed licences for both the revolvers.

“A police team, including some in plain clothes, came to our house around 12.30am and arrested my son. We have licences for both the revolvers but the police are claiming that one was illegally obtained,” Balbir Singh told The Telegraph.

Ajit has been booked under Section 302 IPC and under Sections 25(1) (A)/27 of the Arms Act in connection with the case (771/2012) registered in Basistha police station.

Tiwari said Nalwa, who is around 30 years old, was a professional killer and involved in firing at the another transporter, Rabinder Singh, last year. Rabinder escaped unhurt but Nalwa managed to give the cops the slip.

The police today released Nalwa’s photograph and announced rewards for information about the criminal. Nalwa is a resident of Jammu but frequents Guwahati, the police said.

“Nalwa is a known criminal and we are in touch with the police in Jammu, Punjab, Imphal, Siliguri and other transport hubs to find out if he was involved in criminal cases there too. We urge people contact Amitabh Sihna on his mobile phone (9435049599) if they have any information about Nalwa. The informer will be rewarded suitably.”

Tiwari said they were trying to find out whether the revolvers seized from Ajit Singh’s house were used in the crime. “As we have not received the empty case of the bullet that hit Ajit Singh, we will need sometime to identify the arms,” he said.