Sweet shop owner-cum-arms dealer held for ‘murder’

Daltonganj: A 40-year-old sweet shop owner and his accomplice, who were both illegal arms dealers, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing a Dalit youth on June 16. Both were sent to judicial remand on Friday night, police said on Saturday.
Palamu SP Ajay Linda said, “Harihurganj police arrested sweet shop owner Sarwan Kumar Gupta and his accomplice Prawin Jaiswal for allegedly killing a 24-year-old Dalit salesman, who used to work in Kumar’s shop, Gopala Sweets.”
He added that Kumar used to stock illegal arms and ammunition at a godown in his shop. Police seized three country-made pistols of 7.65 bore, 12 cartridges of 7.65 bore, 60 cartridges of 315 bore, among others, from his godown.
The SP further said that Prawin decided to kill the salesman, identified as Arvind Kumar Thakur, as the latter wanted to buy a pistol but the deal went wrong as Thakur didn’t like the quality of the weapon shown to him which led to an argument between the two. Later on Tuesday night, both Prawin and Thakur got drunk and the former killed the Dalit youth.
Thakur’s body was found on Wednesday, following which a special investigation team was formed to cracked the case.