Patna, Sept. 9: A couple was killed on Friday night, allegedly by the father of the girl with whom their son eloped in Kaimur district, around 200km southwest of Patna.

The incident took place around 11pm when Kamla Choudhary, 50, his wife Shanti Devi, 45, and their two young daughters were asleep on the roof of their house in Mubarakpur village under the jurisdiction of Mohania police station. The girl was a Rajput while the boy belonged to the fishermen community.

Preliminary investigation shows Dharmendra Choudhary had fallen in love with Arvind Singh's daughter. The two escaped from their respective houses three months ago. The girl's parents were annoyed with Dharmendra. The police said they had reportedly asked Kamla to convince his son Dharmendra to return to the village. But Dharmendra ignored the warning, married the girl and settled in Delhi.

Residents told police the girl's relatives used to tell others they would take revenge as the incident had lowered their family's dignity. On Friday night, Arvind and his associates allegedly barged into Kamla's house and shot at him, his wife and two daughters, a police officer posted at Mohania police station said. The attackers, eight in number, fired from close range, killing Kamla and his wife on the spot. Their daughters - Kiran Devi, 20, and Sushmita Kumar, 15 - were rushed to a local hospital from where they were referred to a hospital in Varanasi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

The bodies of the dead had been sent to the local sadar hospital for post-mortem, the officer said. Kaimur superintendent of police (SP) Harpreet Kaur said an FIR was lodged against three named and four unidentified persons on the basis of the statement of Kiran, a survivor. 'Raids were on to nab the assailants,' she told The Telegraph.

In another incident, a youth identified as Mohammad Munna Mian was shot dead by unidentified armed men at Machchkiyan village under the jurisdiction of Durgawati police station on Friday night. The police recovered his bullet-riddled body on Saturday morning. Mohania sub-divisional police officer Manoj Ram said the youth was attacked when he was returning after offering prayers at a local mosque. Old enmity is said to be the motive for the murder, he said, adding that raids were on to nab the assailants.