Bahraich, Nov 21 (IANS): In a joint operation, police in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich and their counterparts from Jalandhar have arrested three people for the murder of a cloth merchant in the Punjab city.

Gurpreet, Shivdas and Deepak Sharma committed the crime on November 14 and then came by train to Bahraich where a relative of one of the accused stays.

They were planning to stay in Bahraich on a fake identity.

Station House Officer (SHO), Visheshwarganj, Virendra Singh said that they were informed by the Jalandhar police about the presence of the three criminals in Bahraich.

"We were told that one of the accused Deepak Sharma had a relative in Netaipurwa village of Gujraghat and it could be possible that he was hiding there. We traced two houses in that village where people from outside had come recently," said Singh.

Later, a police team from Jalandhar was informed and they visited both the houses in the village by disguising themselves as loan providers and nailed them.

SHO, Jalandhar Zone II, Gurpreet Singh said that when the three accused were produced before a court for remand, they pleaded innocence, stating that they were not aware of Kunal's murder.

The SHO further said that Deepak, who also worked at a cloth shop, had a verbal spat with the victim Kunal who had allegedly broken his mobile phone .

"Deepak was asking Kunal to get his mobile phone repaired but Kunal was not ready to get it repaired. On November 14, a fight broke out between the victim and Deepak. In the meantime, friends of Deepak, Gurpreet and Shivdas reached the spot and tried to pacify them but in vain. The three hit Kunal with an iron rod. After two days Kunal succumbed to injuries," he said.