Patna: Three assailants on a motorbike shot dead a 25-year-old juice stall owner in the Shahpur area here on Sunday morning, the third such attack on traders in the city since last week.

Virjeet Chauhan, 25, was murdered near Sarari on the Danapur-Khagaul road under Shahpur police station around 11am. Chauhan, eyewitnesses said, was passing through when the three assailants fired and killed him on the spot.

Chauhan was shot twice, in the stomach and the head.

Sujit Kumar, Chauhan's brother, said: "He was passing through the Sarari-Khagaul area when three persons fired at him. The local residents told us that the assailants were in their early 30s and were on one bike."

As news of the murder spread, Danapur assistant superintendent of police Manoj Tiwari reached the spot with police from Danapur and Shahpur police stations. The police recovered two empty cartridges from the spot and sent the body for post-mortem.

Shahpur police station house officer Vikash Chandra said: "The family members have told the police that they will lodge the complaint after performing the last rites of the victim."

Sources in the police said Chauhan was killed over an old enmity, as he had been fired upon earlier too.

A police officer in the Shahpur police station said: "We have come to know that Chauhan had enmity with some local criminals in the area. He was also in a land dispute with one K.D. Nonia in the Shahpur area."

Chauhan's murder is the second such case in west Patna since the past week.

Three armed persons shot dead grocery shop owner Nikhil Raj, alias Bunty Kumar, at Raghunath Tola under Gardanibagh police station area on May 3. The criminals also injured Bunty's father Dinanath Sah and looted Rs 2.5 lakh from the shop. Three persons have been arrested from Phulwarisharif in the case. On May 1, armed criminals also fired at a clothes store in the Bihta area.

Abducted teen found

Babloo Kumar, 14, was kidnapped by two persons on a bike near Varni Bazar under Dhanarua police station on Saturday evening.

His father Baban Prasad, a resident of Ashrafganj, lodged an FIR against Dhannu Yadav of Chakdullah village and two unknown persons on Sunday morning. The police raided Dhannu's house and recovered Babloo, said Dhanarua police station house officer Ajay Kumar Singh. The police said prima facie, Babloo was kidnapped for being married off to Dhannu's daughter.