The Darbhanga police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday recovered the weapon allegedly used in the murder of Jitan Sahani, the father of VIP chief and former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahani, officials said.

Darbhanga’s Senior Superintendent of Police Jaggunath Reddy said that the weapon was found at the residence of Mohammad Manzoor, a resident of Jirat village under the Ghanshyampur police station.

Jitan Sahani was found murdered at his ancestral house located at Afzala village under Birol police station on July 16.

“We have already arrested four accused, including Qazim Ansari, 40, who is the main accused in this case. Additionally, we have arrested Mohammad Sitare alias Chedi, 30, Mohammad Chote Laheri, 28, and Mohammad Azad, 19. They were in judicial custody. Since the weapon used in the crime was not recovered from them, we obtained a two-day police remand on July 23,” he said.

During interrogation, Ansari revealed the weapon’s whereabouts. He said that he had borrowed a large knife from Manzoor who had a shop in Jirat village. After committing the crime, Ansari headed towards Jirat, and on the way, washed the weapon and his clothes at a hand pump, kept the clothes at his house, and threw the knife into Manzoor’s shop through a small gap between the shutter and the ground.

“Based on Ansari’s statement, we conducted a raid at the shop of Mohammad Manzoor and arrested him. Initially, he misled us about the weapon, but when confronted with Ansari, he admitted that the weapon was kept at his house,” the SSP said.

In his confessional statement, Manzoor revealed that when he learned about the murder of Jitan Sahani, he became frightened upon realising that the weapon used in the crime belonged to him. Consequently, he took the weapon from his shop and hid it in his house. He also told the police where he had hidden it.

“We have recovered the weapon and sent it to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing. Blood stains were found on the weapon,” the SSP said.

Reddy also said that the financial motives were behind the murder of Jitan Sahani, as all the accused had taken loans from him, for which they had pledged their possession or property as collateral.