Thane: Four persons, who allegedly shot dead a police constable in Bihar around a fortnight back, were arrested in Thane in the wee hours on Saturday, police said.
The four accused have been identified as Amitkumar Jha, Navnitkumar Singh, Deva Panjiar and Roshankumar Panjiar, police said adding that all of them were aged between 30 and 35 years.
"On December 21 last year, these four accused had snatched a service pistol of police constable Gangesh Kumar and shot him dead while he was on patrol duty. The deceased was attached to Rosada police station in Samastipur town in Bihar," Additional Superintendent of Police (Thane rural) Sangramnsinh Nishandar told reporters here today.
Even though Bihar police later recovered the pistol, the accused were at large, Nishandar said adding that the four accused wanted the service pistol to carry out criminal activities.
Following the incident, Bihar police had formed a special task force to nab them and were in constant touch with various police stations across the country, Nishandar said.
During the course of investigation DSP of Samastipur in Bihar got a tip-off that the accused were in Shirdi town in Maharashtra and that some of the accused had even asked their family members to deposit some cash into a bank account.
Police came to know that the bank account number given was from Bhiwandi town. Thane police traced the whereabouts of the account-holder, who was later taken into custody. During the interrogation, he revealed that the four accused were in Kalyan to board a train to Patna.
A trap was laid at Kalyan railway station last night and around 2 am, a police team led by Local Crime Branch Inspector Fatesingh Patil, finally spotted the quartet and nabbed them, Nishandar said.
Replying to a question, Nishandar said the accused had come to Bhiwandi only a few days back and lived in Chavindra, Shelar Nadi Naka and Katai areas at the places of their acquaintances.
"We are trying to find out about who provided shelter to them and also if they indulged in any other criminal activities during their stay in Maharashtra," Nishandar said.
The task force members from Bihar are on their way to take custody of the arrested accused and Thane police would hand them over to police from Bihar with the transit order.
All the four accused were involved in various criminal activities like murder and dacoity, among others, and Bihar police were on the lookout, police said.
Deva Panjiar was even convicted in a case in Bihar and had jumped the parole, police said adding further investigations into the case would be carried out by Bihar police.
PTI
