Family members mourn the death of Dr Rajnish Ranjan (inset) on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The medical fraternity on Sunday set a 48-hour-deadline for the administrative machinery to arrest the murderers of a young medical practitioner, shot dead near his residence at Rajendra Nagar late on Saturday night.

The incident occurred when the 43-year-old victim, Dr Rajnish Ranjan, was walking back to his home under the jurisdiction of Kadamkuan police station after buying some articles from a nearby shop. A bullet of .315 bore hit him from the rear near Durga temple, causing grievous injuries. He was rushed to a local nursing home but the doctors declared him brought dead.

The murder of the physician sent shock waves among the members of the medical fraternity. It also reminded them of the Lalu-Rabri era, when the doctors were kidnapped, murdered and forced to pay extortion money to criminals operating under the tutelage of their political masters.

“The incident is highly deplorable and needs utmost attention of the government,” said Dr Rajiv Ranjan, the president of the Indian Medical Association’s Bihar chapter.

The association has given a 48-hour ultimatum to the government machinery to arrest the culprits.

“We can go to any extent after the expiry of the deadline,” Dr Ranjan said, adding that the course of action would be decided at the meeting of the office-bearers scheduled for Tuesday. He also demanded adequate compensation and job to the widow of the deceased.

He lamented that the doctors were vulnerable to crime of all hues. “It’s a matter of concern that the doctors are being victimised again,” he told The Telegraph.

The victim is survived by his doctor wife Rinku Kumari. He originally belonged to Saran district but had settled down in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh after the death of his father, who was an employee of the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).

City superintendent of police Jayant Kant said the reason behind the doctor’s murder was yet to be ascertained. He said the cellphone and the money the victim was carrying with him were intact, suggesting the motive of the criminal (or criminals as the number of the killers is not unknown) was to kill the doctor.

Sanjay Kumar, the Kadamkuan police station house officer (SHO), did not rule out the involvement of family acquaintances in the incident. “The deceased had set up a clinic at Hajipur in Vaishali district and was doing roaring practice,” he said.

The SHO said some insiders might be involved in the killing.

“He (Dr Rajnish) had closed his clinic at Rajendra Nagar about half-an-hour before the incident. It seems that the murderers had been watching him for quite some time,” he told The Telegraph.

Before Dr Rajnish, Dr Bhudeo Singh alias Budhadev Singh was beaten to death by a group of inmates of Gopalganj divisional jail in May 2011. The high-profile case was handed over to the CBI after much hullabaloo over the incident.

Prior to Bhudev’s murder, Dr Pradip Agrawal, a surgeon, was killed in Patna. “We were feeling safe after the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government came to power in November 2005. Many doctors, who had hired private security guards for protection, had started attending calls at night,” a doctor living in Kankerbagh said.

Murders that rocked Patna in 2013:

In dark

Date: October 24
Incident: Ramji Prasad Gupta, owner of B-Series Audio Video cassettes, killed in Patliputra Colony
Case status: No breakthrough

Clueless

Date: October 19
Incident: Kapil Sharma, an employee of Patna commissioner’s office, shot dead at Judges Colony
Case status: No clue

Cracked

Date: May 22
Incident: Hotel owner Hari Mohan Lal killed in Nasriganj
Case status: Four arrested, prime accused and another person absconding

Clueless

Date: March 3
Incident: Edible oil dealer Ajay Kumar killed at Patrakar Nagar
Case status: No headway