The headway, according to an official release, came in the wake of an investigation of a firing at Lunawada, Panchmahals district, on Wednesday, in which one Jitendrasingh Chauhan was injured in the chest. A probe identified the victim as a member of a gang of conmen; the firing was provoked by Chauhan's attempt to flee with the booty, according to special inspector-general of the range D D Tuteja.

The other members of the gang were identified as Narendra Parth, Jagdish Patel, Lavjibhai Patel and Gordhan, all listed criminals of Bhavnagar. Narendra Singh, brother of erstwhile Sidhpur judicial magistrate Dhirendra Singh, was also a member of their group and was related to Parth, Tuteja said.

In April 1998, Narendra disappeared with a huge booty collected by the gang. The other members started pressuring Parth who, in turn, started making inquiries with Singh.

Unable to make much headway, Parth sent Lavji and one Babloo, a contract killer and bootlegger based in Gadhada, Bhavnagar, to kill the magistrate at Sidhpur on August 10. But, in the meantime, Singh had been transferred from there and had been replaced by Jayesh Prajapati, who occupied the same house that Singh had. So it was that Prajapati came in the range of fire, though he sustained only minor injuries.

Subsequently, Chauhan began demanding his share of the loot, and the Lavji and Parth decided to give the Rs 50,000 supari for his murder to Babloo.

Tuteja said in the release that while Parth and Lavji had been arrested and were being interrogated, the hunt for Babloo was on.