Madhepura/Patna: A hotel owner was shot dead late on Tuesday night in Madhepura district of Bihar, sparking public outrage and a dramatic two-hour roadblock on National Highway 107 near Chandni Chowk. The incident occurred around midnight when the victim, Jyotish, was reportedly closing his hotel for the night.
According to eyewitnesses, unidentified assailants arrived at the scene with their faces covered in towels and opened fire before fleeing while brandishing weapons.
Jyotish sustained three bullet injuries—two in the chest and one in the head—and died on the spot. His wife, Pooja Devi, who was also present at the hotel, told reporters that the couple had been running the establishment for several years and were also residing within its premises.
She alleged that her husband had longstanding disputes with several individuals in the locality and had even filed a case under the SC/ST Act against them. Since then, she claimed, they had been threatening him to withdraw the case.
The tension escalated after the murder, with angry residents gathering outside the hotel and blocking the Madhepura-Murliganj road in protest. The blockade, which lasted for nearly two hours on Wednesday, disrupted traffic and prompted the swift arrival of police from the Bharrahi station. Officers took the body into custody and sent it to Madhepura Sadar Hospital for a postmortem. The scene remained tense but under control following the police intervention.
Circle Inspector Ramlakhan Pandit of Madhepura confirmed that a formal investigation is underway. “We are taking the allegations very seriously,” he said. “A case has been registered and efforts are on to identify and arrest the culprits at the earliest.”
