Police on Wednesday morning arrested four Aum Shinrikyo figures, including a former Tokyo police officer, in connection with the 1995 shooting of then National Police Agency chief Takaji Kunimatsu.
The ex-senior officer, Toshiyuki Kosugi, 39, had owned up to the shooting about a year later while still on the force but was not charged due to lack of evidence -- police divers were unable to find the gun in the Kanda River where he claimed to have thrown it.
Police Department inspectors believe the four conspired with another cultist who actually was the triggerman. The suspected shooter is Satoru Hashimoto, 37, who has been sentenced to death for the murder of a Yokohama lawyer and the attorney's wife and son and for other crimes. He is currently appealing his death sentence.