Kasba gangster Trilokinath Shaw had killed neither his girlfriend Mamoni Das nor his rival Gopal Shaw in the heat of the moment, as he had made out after his arrest. These had been pre-meditated acts, the CID claimed on Wednesday.

On both the days of the murders, he had at least seven men with him ? including the two arrested on Tuesday ? to help him remove the bodies and dig the pits to bury them.

The CID got to know this after briefly interrogating Trilokinath when he returned from a city court, where he was produced earlier in the day and remanded in police custody till May 31.

?We got Triloki for a short while this evening and learnt that there were others who were present on both occasions to help him carry out the crime. We are on the look-out for them,? said Soumen Mitra, deputy inspector-general of police (CID).

A resident of KN Sen Road, in Kasba, Trilokinath Shaw was arrested on Tuesday after the CID learnt that he had murdered gang member Gopal Shaw, alias Goplai, around seven months ago, and then killed Mamoni Das about a month-and-a-half ago.

He had buried both bodies inside an abandoned industrial unit in Swinhoe Lane, off Bijon Setu, in the southern end of the city.

Trilokinath claimed he had murdered Mamoni because she was repeatedly unfaithful to him. Married and with a 14-year-old daughter, Mamoni, police said, had a fling with Gopal Shaw, too, which prompted Trilokinath to murder him.

Earlier on Tuesday night, a team of officers from the CID?s homicide wing grilled Trilokinath and found out the names of some people who would supply him with arms. Based on his confessions, a few of the officers fanned out across Kasba on Wednesday, tracking down the arms-sellers, in and around Kasba market and Chaulpatty.

Police were trying to locate the weapon that was used to kill the two by Trilokinath. ?Some accomplices claimed the weapon was with them even a week ago. But they have passed it on to others,? said one of the officers.

CID officers claimed that finding the razor and the revolver, that were used to murder the two, was crucial in nailing Trilokinath and his accomplices. The CID is also looking for ex-accomplices who have fallen out with him.