A BJP politician allegedly got a close friend from the Shiv Sena murdered on a street, shed crocodile tears at his home and tried to mislead investigators by making false “eyewitness” statements, police said.

His luck ran out when he overdid the misleading, trying to conjure up too many red herrings and ending up arousing suspicion, an officer alleged.

Chhatrapal Yadav, former Rampur district secretary of the BJP, was arrested on Saturday from Rampur city, 330km northwest of Lucknow, with his brother Pawan and the two alleged killers.

Two motorcycle-borne assailants had shot dead Anurag Sharma, 40, former Rampur district convener of the Sena, in Rampur city on May 20 while he was riding home on his scooter.

Rampur superintendent of police Shogun Gautam said the two politicians had been so close that Sharma had handed Chhatrapal his family jewellery to pay off debtors and settle a fraud case. The officer alleged Chhatrapal had conspired to kill Sharma so he wouldn’t have to repay him.

BJP sources in Lucknow said Chhatrapal had been inducted from the Bajrang Dal seven years ago. He had projected himself as the prospective BJP candidate from Rampur city in 2017 but the party didn’t field him. He campaigned for the party in 2019.

Chhatrapal and Pawan had motivated Himanshu Kumar and Raj Kishore to kill Sharma, against whom they harboured personal grudges, Gautam alleged.

Police sources said Sharma had provided protection to a small-time goon named Sunil Yadav who had allegedly shot dead Himanshu’s father Hemant Kumar four years ago.

Raj, a friend of Himanshu, had last year shot at and injured Sharma, they added. The motive remains unclear.

All four arrested men are civil contractors, as was Sharma.

Gautam outlined the murder motive. “(Chhatrapal) Yadav had opened a chit fund company a few years ago. A forgery and cheating case was registered against him when he failed to return the investors’ money,” he told reporters.

“Sharma gave him his family’s gold jewellery so he could return the money of the investors who had lodged the case. Yadav was supposed to pay Sharma back in cash but he decided to eliminate his friend. Yadav also felt that Sharma could be an obstacle to his growth as a politician.”