Man who killed history-sheeter held from Kota

Two months after history-sheeter Sunil Lakhera was shot dead in broad daylight in Jaipur, police arrested his assailant on Wednesday. According to police, Kesar Singh, the arrested person, is a criminal and had murdered Lakhera due to personal enmity with him.

Deputy commissioner of police (west) Ashok Gupta said since a few days before the murder on April 28, Singh and Lakhera had been abusing each other on phone over a dispute.

“It was because of this dispute that Singh shot Lakhera dead in broad daylight near the Kanakpura Phatak and fled. We have learnt that Singh was the right hand man of infamous Kota gangster Bhanu Pratap Singh,” said Gupta. Police said to arrest Singh, CCTV footages of nearby areas along with call details of the accused were analysed.

“A special team of officials was constituted to arrest Singh and we got information that he was hiding in a farmhouse in Kota from where he was brought to Jaipur and arrested after he confessed to murdering Lakhera,” said Gupta. Police said during investigation, it has been learnt that apart from other districts of Rajasthan, Singh had been staying in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and had also gone to Nepal for a brief period.

His victim, Lakhera, was a suspected bookie and also had several cases registered against him at Jhotwara police station.

“We have learnt that at the time of his arrest in Kota, Singh had taken ₹1 lakh advance to eliminate a person from the Shivraj Singh gang in Kota which was a rival of the Bhanu Pratap Singh gang. Singh had also competed a recce of the person who he wanted to murder,” said police.

Officials said apart from this, Singh has further confessed that he took ₹5 lakh to murder another person. Police have also recovered ₹1 lakh from Singh at the time of the arrest. “We are further investigating the case and from interrogation of Singh, it is possible that more details are unearthed about other members of his gang and their plans.”