Private tutor Shiv Kumar Singh (32), whose maimed body was found at his Gandhi Road residence in Sonari on Friday, was smothered to death by two killers hired by his wife's lover.

The ugly face of an affair became more repulsive following the arrest of Deepak Kumar Singh in Patna on Sunday afternoon. The 25-year-old, who runs an electronics store in Digha and was brought to the city on Tuesday, revealed the names of the contract killers and said his sweetheart Soni Singh had parted with her gold ornaments to arrange for Rs 50,000 for the job.

SSP Akhilesh Kumar Jha said Nilesh Kumar Singh and Abhishek Kumar Singh were friends with Deepak and also residents of Digha police station area in Patna.

On December 25, Deepak had brought them to Jamshedpur to have Shiv Kumar identified. "On January 10, both returned to the city. They met Soni and she put them up in a room in her house. After her husband went to bed around 10.30pm the same night, the duo entered his room and pressed a pillow on his face till he died," Jha said.

Soni apparently was so eager to see Shiv Kumar dead that she sat on the pillow even after he had stopped breathing. "The hired assailants later lacerated the tutor's body with a sharp object to make it look like a fatal fight with a break-in gang, an alibi that the wife had in mind. They left the house around 1.30am," the SSP said, adding that they would send another team to arrest the killers.

Soni, who is six months pregnant, was arrested on Saturday. During interrogation, she had divulged Deepak's name that led to his arrest. He has been booked under Sections 120(B) and 302 of the IPC.

He also told police that he and Soni had an affair of five years and even tied the knot at a temple, but her parents forced her to marry the tutor a year and a half ago. Soni wanted out of the relationship with her husband and hatched the conspiracy after Shiv Kumar started suspecting her of having an extramarital affair.