Seven criminals were arrested in connection with the murder of Ranchi civil court lawyer Ram Pravesh Singh, 47, who was gunned down near his residence at Road 5 of Sarvodaya Nagar, Kanke, by a bike-borne duo on Monday night.

Ranchi rural SP Rishav Kumar Jha, heading the probe team formed by Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta to crack the case, told the media that the deceased lawyer was also in the property business and was murdered due to an ongoing land dispute.

Jha added that a supari of Rs 7 lakh was paid in instalments to kill the lawyer.

Those arrested in the case were identified as Ram Pahan, Satish Munda and Shivam Kumar of Ranchi; Satish Kumar Pathak, Shankar Ram a.k.a. Shankar Bhuiyan and Rohit Turi of Hazaribagh; and Raja Sao of Bokaro. Except Raja Sao Shankar Ram, all others live in Ranchi. Police also recovered a gun with one live bullet, a bike and some mobile phones.

The dispute over 2 acres and 96 decimals of land at Sarvodaya Nagar goes back a decade. In 2009, Chandwe, Kanke residents Ram Pahan and Birsa Oraon both claimed ownership of the land.

Pahan said the land was granted to him to perform his duties as a priest. Lawyer Singh came into the picture when he signed an agreement with Oraon on the name of his (Singh’s) associates Seema Tirkey and Narayan Bhagat and started selling the land in parts. An angry Pahan on a number of occasions threatened Singh.

Then, Pahan hatched a conspiracy to eliminate the lawyer for which he contacted Ranchi criminals Satish Munda and Shivam, who demanded Rs 7 lakh for the contract murder. Satish Munda and Shivam then contacted other criminals Satish Kumar Pathak and Rohit Turi who agreed to arrange killing the lawyer for money, and they in turn contacted Shankar, a fixer, who in turn hired two sharpshooters Raja Sao and Mithun.

Raja and Mithun, who shot the lawyer dead, got only Rs 10,000 between them, the rural SP said. “All accused in this case has been arrested except Mithun, a Gomia resident in Bokaro district. Raids are on to catch him,” said Jha.

The senior policeman added that during interrogation Pahan confessed to having made part-wise payments to Satish Munda and Shivam. Pahan paid Rs 1 lakh to them in May this year, followed by Rs 3 lakh as second installment in June, Rs 2.5 lakh as third in August, and finally Rs 50,000, which was made right after the lawyer was shot.