New Delhi: A 30-year-old former state-level basketball player was arrested in connection with the killing of local BJP leader Surender Matiala in April this year, police said on Friday.
Matiala, a Kisan Morcha leader of the Delhi BJP, was shot dead by two men in his office in Dwarka's Bindapur on April 14, they said.
Police arrested Sunil, a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, in connection with the murder on Wednesday with a pistol loaded with three live cartridges.
Sunil is alleged to be a wanted criminal of the Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu-Lawrence Bishnoi syndicate.
"Our team has apprehended a wanted criminal, Sunil, who was involved in the murder of Surender Matiala, District President of Najafgarh Kisan Morcha of Delhi," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said.
The officer said that before he was arrested, Sunil was on the lookout to kill another man from his village to settle a personal score.
"The accused was changing his whereabouts quite frequently to evade arrest and was waiting for further instructions from his boss, Kapil Sangwan," Dhaliwal said.
"On Wednesday about 8 am we got a tip-off that Sunil was in the Rohini area, and ... our team laid a trap at Bhagwan Mahavir Marg there. At about 10 am, he was surrounded by the police team. He tried to escape, but was overpowered and apprehended," he said.
During interrogation, he revealed that he was introduced to Sangwan by a schoolmate named Rohit and was tasked with eliminating Surender Matiala.
Rohit, Sunil, and their other associates planned the murder at a flat in Sarojini Nagar, police said.
In return for the killing, Sangwan transferred some money to him and also helped him get a pistol, they added.