Cuttack, Dec. 28: Crime branch today arrested four persons and cracked the murder case of Titilagarh youth BJD leader Abhimanyu Sahu.

Speaking at a news conference, additional director-general of police (crime branch) B.K. Sharma said Sahu had been killed because of personal and business rivalry.

The accused, identified as Alok Das, Santosh Rana, Jagdish Bag and Naresi Singh of Titilagarh, were arrested from various parts of the state yesterday based on closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footages. Alok Das, the prime accused, along with his three associates, had killed Sahu while he was on his morning walk on November 16. “Alok had conspired to eliminate Abhimanyu as he thought the latter was using his political influence to acquire a major chunk of the contracts of various projects in the region,” said Sharma.

“We have not found any political angle to the murder case,” Sharma said.

According to preliminary investigation, it is evident that Alok was constantly monitoring Sahu’s movements and had even conducted a recce in October to kill him. However, the culprits’ plans did not materialise as Sahu used to move always with friends and supporters.

On December 16, Alok and the other three followed Sahu in an Ambassador car and on a motorcycle.

A crime branch official said the assailants had initially tried to kill Sahu by running him over by the car. But when they found he was still alive, Alok and others hacked him to death and fled from the spot.

Crime branch sources said the assailants had initially tried to mislead the probe by creating an impression that it was an accident. Later, all the four escaped from Titilagarh and moved to their relatives’ places in Balangir, Rairakhol, Cuttack and Puri.

Alok had initially approached Jagdish Bag, who used to manage a dhaba for him, to kill Sahu. Both the car and the motorcycle have been seized and all the four accused will be produced before the court on Sunday.

Sources said the breakthrough in the case came when Jagdish was identified from a CCTV footage received from a hotel. The accused frequently changed his location after he saw the footage being aired in some local television channels.

“Jagdish had shaved his head and was frequently changing his location. We got clues by analysing all evidence,” said a senior crime branch official.