All four were produced before a magistrate on Sunday and remanded to police custody until July 2. While Madhu has been taken on remand by the Varachha police, the other three, namely Shiva, Jairam, and Santosh will be remanded at the Katargam police station, where the Sonal-Shilpa case has been registered.

The police recovered five large knives and other weapons during a search of the residences of those arrested. While Madhu, one of the arrested, is a hardened criminal arrested earlier under charges of murder and loot, Shiva is a rickshaw driver and was taken into custody from the Kamrej lock up. The gang were involved in the murder of Bhagwan Patil in Varachha a few weeks back and the loot-cum-murder of an unidentified person in the Katargam area on June 8.

The city police commissioner, while announcing the arrest of the four on Saturday evening, said that they could be involved in a number of other offences as well. ``Other crimes, if any, will also be found out during their remand,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the police team that is in Orissa has arrested two more murder accused from Orissa, wanted by the police in cases registered in the Pandesara and Umra police station areas. The special branch informed on Sunday evening that Kanu Dandpani Nahak and Ravi Jena had been nabbed with the help of the local Orissa police. While Nahak was wanted for the murder of one Sameer Behra that took place in the Pandesara area of the city in July 1998, Jena was involved in another murder that took place in the Umra area earlier this year.

Behra was killed by one Balkrishna Nahak, Kanu Nahak and another unidentified person who had stepped on his neck, strangulating him to death, before kicking him in the face and chest after an argument at an open plot in Pandesara GHB. The other person arrested by the team, namely Ravi Jena is involved in a murder that took place in a slum off Umra last month.

Both accused, after committing crimes here, had fled to their native place. They will be escorted to the city along with the others arrested so far, police said.