An absconding murder accused, among four persons arrested recently, was the mastermind behind the killing of a bullion trader at his shop in Amleshwar town in Chhattisgarh's Durg district.
Durg Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said Anupam Jha alias Abhishek (30) and Saurabh Singh (24), Abhay Bharti and Alok Yadav, both 18, were brought here from Uttar Pradesh on transit remand.
They were held on Friday in Varanasi for killing Samriddhi Jewellers owner Surendra Soni (52) on Thursday.
Based on CCTV footage and call records, the police learnt that the four men escaped to Uttar Pradesh in a car after the incident.
The four have confessed killing Soni.
The police said that Jha, who was absconding since October 2021 from the Raipur court premises in a 2016 murder of a local jeweller Pankaj Bothara, had planned the robbery.
The motive behind the killing was robbery.
The police recovered the cash and ornaments, besides a car and a motorcycle used in the crime.