In the FIR lodged in the in Vikas Nagar police station, Singh’s family members had named Arvind Mishra, Pramod Mishra, Shubhash Tiwari, Pankaj Verma and Munesh Srivastava as those behind his murder.

The incident took place at around 10 pm on Monday near Mama Crossing in Vikas Nagar. Police say that after Srivastava opened fire at Singh, killing him, all the accused fled the spot.

All the accused have been booked under various sections of the IPC and sent to jail later in the evening. “We will take Munesh on remand for further questioning. We have also recovered the pistol and the car in which all of them fled after the incident,” said B P Singh, SO, Vikas Nagar.

He added, “Chandra Pal and all the accused were friends and habitual drinkers. There is a deserted plot belonging to PWD, adjacent to a model wine shop near Mama crossing, where Chandra Pal had constructed a couple of small rooms. He alongwith the accused used to consume liquor in these rooms. Chandra Pal had let a rickshaw puller stay in these rooms for security purpose.”

According to the police, the wine shop is situated in a building belonging to Verma. His relative Mishra also runs a hardware shop in the same building.

“Arvind used to supply raw materials to Chandra Pal and thus, they become friends. Munesh used to work at Arvind’s shop. The recovery of a country-made pistol from his possession, suggests that he is of a criminal nature,” added the SO.

However, it is still not clear that whether all the men, including, Singh, had consumed liqour together on the day of the murder.