PATNA, July 9 -- The Bihar police on Tuesday claimed to have solved the murder case of prominent industrialist Gopal Khemka, who was shot dead in a posh Patna locality last week, with the arrest of two accused and the recovery of the firearm used in the crime, blaming the killing on a land deal that went awry. While the police arrested alleged shooter Umesh Yadav (52) and conspirator Ashok Sao (65), a third accused, Vikas alias Raja (20), who was suspected to have supplied the weapon used in the crime, was gunned down in an encounter with police in Patna in the early hours on Tuesday, an officer said. Addressing a press conference at the police headquarters in state capital, director general of police (DGP) Vinay Kumar said that the Special Task Force (STF) and Patna police tracked Yadav with the help of CCTV footage and nabbed him from his house by identifying his motorcycle parked outside. "During interrogation, Yadav admitted that he shot Khemka after receiving a Rs.4-lakh contract for killing the businessman from Ashok Sao. He got Rs.50,000 in advance and the remaining Rs.3.5 lakh was paid to him by Sao on JP Ganga Path under Malsalami police station area at 8 am [July 5], barely nine hours after the murder," the DGP said. The firearm used to shoot at Khemka has been recovered from a hideout of the shooter, he said. Based on Yadav's statement, police recovered 56 cartridges of 7.62 mm and 9 mm pistol, two magazines and 14 bullets from his brother's room on the first floor of his house, as well as Rs.3.65 lakh from his own room, the top officer added. "Ashok Sao is said to be involved in property business, and prima facie it was a land deal that led him to hire the contract killer," the DGP said, without divulging any further details. Yadav claimed to have first met Sao, a Patna-based businessman who hails from Nalanda, around 18 months ago at a marriage function at Bihar Sharif in Nalanda, the police chief said. "The conspiracy of Khemka's murder was hatched around one and half month ago, when Sao asked Yadav to arrange a shooter and weapon. Sao bought two mobile phones, kept one and gave another to Yadav. A SIM card was also purchased in the name of Yadav, with instructions they would talk only through that number," he added. P3...