Jharkhand gangster murder: Jamshedpur man accused of financing bike used in killing held, brought to Doon

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Police have made the first arrest in the murder of Jharkhand gangster Vikram Sharma in Dehradun, and taken a man from Jamshedpur into custody. The accused, Rajkumar Singh, allegedly made a payment in Haridwar from his UPI ID for the motorcycle used by the three unidentified assailants to carry out the crime, said STF SSP Ajai Singh."The same motorcycle was used by the shooters to travel from Haridwar to Dehradun and to flee back after committing the murder on Feb 13 inside a shopping complex on Rajpur Road," he said. A joint team of Dehradun police and STF brought the accused to Dehradun on transit remand on Sunday. "He will soon be produced before a local court," the SSP said. The accused's name will be added in the case filed after the gangster's shooting. The SSP further said that investigators have gathered crucial evidence and are making all-out efforts to arrest the shooters. "They will be nabbed soon, after which the exact motive behind the murder will be established," he added.Earlier, a police officer familiar with the probe said the three shooters had been identified and remain on the run.The 54-year-old gangster was allegedly involved in over 50 criminal cases and was named in the 2007 murder of Ashish Dey, co-owner of Sreeleathers, a footwear brand headquartered in Kolkata.Police said he operated a stone-crushing plant in Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district and had amassed properties worth over Rs 100 crore in Dehradun, where he had been living since 2021 after securing conditional bail from a Jharkhand court.Senior officers had said they suspect Sharma was possibly killed at the behest of his protege, Akhilesh Singh, another dreaded gangster, in a dispute over sharing extortion money. Singh is currently lodged in Dumka Central Jail in Jharkhand.