New Delhi: Five people, including four members of the same family, were killed and another was injured in a shooting at Hotel Bilas Inn in Guwahati’s Bora Service area on Monday. Police arrested the hotel’s leaseholder, Ghanakanta Gogoi, within an hour and said preliminary inquiries pointed to a dispute over the property’s lease agreement.
The firing occurred around 9pm at the hotel on GS Road, a major commercial thoroughfare in the city. Investigators seized a licensed .32-bore pistol suspected to have been used in the attack, according to Assam Tribune.
The Guwahati commissioner of police, Partha Sarathi Mahanta, said six people had sustained gunshot injuries, of whom five died. Four of those killed belonged to the property owner’s family, while the fifth victim and the injured person were from the same village as the family.
Lease agreement at centre of investigation
Police said Gogoi had taken the hotel on lease, placing his business relationship with the owners at the centre of the investigation. According to available reports, Mahanta said the lease arrangement began last year, although investigators had yet to establish the precise circumstances that led to the shooting.
Mahanta described the suspected motive as a preliminary finding and said all aspects of the case were being examined. Police were questioning Gogoi and conducting forensic and scientific examinations to reconstruct the sequence of events and verify the initial account.
The dispute under examination concerns the relationship between the property owners and the person who had leased the hotel to operate it. Mahanta also clarified that Gogoi was not related to the victims and was not a hired killer.
Injured survivor receiving treatment
The surviving victim was undergoing treatment at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, where officials identified him as Satyendra Pathak, 42. The hospital’s principal and chief superintendent in charge, Babul Kumar Bezbaruah, said Pathak had sustained a gunshot wound with both entry and exit injuries and was stable under the care of the orthopaedics and surgery departments.
Bezbaruah also identified one of the deceased as Narayan Das, aged about 48, who had been brought to the hospital dead. Hospital officials said they received information about the shooting between 9pm and 9.30pm, according to local media reports.
Police said the identities of all those killed would be formally released after verification to ensure accuracy. Mahanta said further details would follow as investigators established the circumstances surrounding the attack.