Police in Chandernagore on Friday arrested three youths accused of shooting dead a journalist in Bihar’s Begusarai on May 20.

The youths, identified as Roshan Kumar, Priyanshu Kumar and Saurav Kumar — all in their twenties — were arrested when they were “loitering suspiciously” in the Goswamighat area of Chandernagore town early on Friday morning. All the three are residents of Khagaria district of Bihar.

Sources said Roshan and Priyanshu Kumar were named as accused in the FIR related to the murder of journalist Subhas Kumar Gupta while Saurav was wanted as an accomplice.

As the trio were unknown faces in Goswamighat, the police had primarily detained them for questioning. They had claimed to be residents of Madhya Pradesh and produced forged documents. However, during the course of the interrogation, they revealed their actual identity. Bengal police spoke to Bihar police to confirm the trio’s alleged involvement in the murder of the journalist.

“Primarily, they did not disclose their identities and produced forged documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards to mislead the cops. However, during sustained questioning, they finally disclosed their identities. We contacted Bihar police and confirmed that the trio are accused in a murder case there,” said Vidit Raj Bhundesh, the deputy commissioner of police of Chandernagore.

After a communication from Hooghly’s Chandernagore police commissionerate, the Begusarai police said they would come over to Bengal to take the accused in their custody.

On Friday, the Chandernagore police arrested the trio for producing forged documents to suppress their identities.

Sources in the Bihar police said Gupta, 27, a local journalist and resident of Shanku village under Bakhri police station area, was shot dead by goons when he was returning home from a wedding.

Police sources said Gupta had been involved in an argument with some drunk youths who had forced women to dance with them at the wedding. As a journalist, he used to report regularly on illegal liquor trade and sand smuggling from rivers.

“The main accused in the murder absconded soon after the killing. So, we are in doubt over the motive. However, we are trying to know the motive of the murder. These arrests might help,” said a police source in Bihar.

The Chandernagore police said that during the investigation, the trio confessed that they had travelled to many states in the past one-and-a-half months. They had been to Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Delhi. The police have recovered three mobile phones, several forged documents and railway tickets.

“However, we have not found any arms on them,” said a police officer in Chandernagore.

Additional reporting by Dev Raj in Patna