Three men have been arrested and two others have been detained from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the murder of Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari's personal assistant Chandranath Rath.

Sources said the special investigation team probing Rath’s murder made the arrests from two locations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Sunday, and the accused are being brought to Calcutta on transit remand. The state police is yet to issue any statement on the arrests.

Mayank Sharma, Vicky Singh and Rajbir Singh were picked up from Buxar along the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh border along with two others.

They were brought to Bhabani Bhawan on Sunday for interrogation, following which the three were arrested.

They will be produced in court later on Monday.

Police suspect Sharma conducted the recce before Chandranath’s murder.

On the night of May 6, Rath was killed around 200 metres from his residence in Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas. He was returning from Nizam Palace on AJC Bose Road, where the chief minister had an office while he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly.

Rath died on the spot, while the driver of the SUV, Buddhadeb Bera, was hospitalised in critical condition.

On the night of the murder, the assailants had chased Chandranath’s vehicle for around seven kilometres.

The meticulous planning and the speed with which the attack was carried out led the police to suspect that sharpshooters from other states were involved.

Members of the SIT travelled to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha to identify suspects.

On Saturday, Suvendu was sworn in as the ninth chief minister of West Bengal.

He will hold a meeting with the police top brass later on Monday.

The police have recovered e-receipts of payments made at toll collection centres.