Police on Thursday arrested the bodyguard of the franchise head of a TV news channel from whose office at posh Ashok Nagar the bodies of two businessmen brothers were recovered on March 7.

Sunil Singh, a retired army man, was picked up from his residence at DVC Colony in Bokaro.

He originally hails from Kovath village of Rohtas district in Bihar.

Police said Singh had confessed that he witnessed the murder, but denied having fired the bullets.

Based on his statement, a licensed revolver used in the crime with 19 rounds of ammunition was recovered from his home.

Other evidences such as a burnt digital video recorder of a CCTV camera, three mobile phones of victims Hemant (38) and Mahendra Agrawal (40) and a half-burnt burnt T-shirt that Singh was wearing at the time of murder were found from near a garage on a road leading to Hatia Dam from Dhurwa.

“Singh was the bodyguard of local channel head of Sadhna News Lokesh Choudhary, who is named in the FIR. He said he did not open fire, but another bodyguard D.K. Tiwary allegedly took Singh’s revolver and shot dead the brothers following some cash-related dispute. We are verifying the genuineness of the statement. We will take Singh into remand for further investigation. If required, a narco analysis will be conducted with the permission of the court,” SSP Gupta said.

He, however, refused to divulge further details saying the matter was still under investigation and more arrests were in the offing.

“It will not be proper to give any conclusive statement in the matter right now,” Gupta said.

According to police, Choudhary owed Rs 5 lakh to Hemant and Mahendra.

The brothers, who used to run courier service Pawan Air Cargo, had apparently gone to the news channel office on March 6 to give Choudhary a reminder about the loan.

Hemant and Mahendra, who stayed with their families in Shivaji Apartment at Mukti Sharan Lane in Lalpur, couldn’t be traced since then.

When they did not return home, family and friends registered a missing case with Lalpur police.

The brothers’ phones continued to work, but calls and texts went unanswered.

The phone location helped police track the bodies to Choudhary’s chamber in Ashok Nagar.