Sundargarh: A businessman was critically injured after being shot at by unidentified assailants at Karamdihi in Odisha’s Sundargarh district late Saturday night.
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He has been identified as Arun Kumar Nayak, an LPG gas distributor and brother-in-law of former minister and Congress leader Kishore Patel.
According to sources, two unidentifi
ed assailants approached him while he was closing his gas depot and opened fire from point-blank range. Bullets struck Nayak in the abdomen, leaving him severely injured. He was rushed to a nearby hospital by locals for emergency treatment and was later shifted to a bigger health facility in Rourkela. His condition is stated to be critical.
Meanwhile, police have launched an investigation into multiple angles, including possible links to a recent armed robbery at Nayak’s shop, where miscreants looted cash and gas cylinders. Other motives – business rivalries and personal enmities and Karamdihi proximity to the borders with Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which has made it susceptible to cross-border criminal activity – are also being probed.