A bus of Sri Krishna Rath Travels owned by Ravikant Choudhary, who was shot dead on Wednesday night. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 28: The murder of 40-year-old private bus operator Ravikant Choudhury last night prompted an inter-state bus strike in protest and a meeting of chief minister Nitish Kumar with director-general of police Neel Mani as well as other senior officers on the spurt in crime today.

Four gunmen had shot dead Choudhury at his office near gate number 2 of Meethapur bus stand around 9 last night, spreading panic among the residents of the area. Sources said Ravikant, the owner of Sri Krishna Rath Travels, was seated in his office, when a white Scorpio arrived there. Four men opened the doors of the vehicle and opened fire at Ravikant. He was killed on the spot.

His brother Bhanu Choudhary was also with him but was not injured. He lodged an FIR at Jakkanpur police station against one Kundan Singh, a close relative of Kundan, and two other people.

Sources said Kundan was a notorious criminal and the operator of another bus service called Mantu Travels.

“Kundan’s relative Kripa Singh had switched sides early this year and started to work with Ravikant. Both of them had floated some new ventures and were in the process of buying more buses. Kundan did not like this,” said a source.

“Around five months ago, Kundan had threatened Ravikant with dire consequences. He has bodyguards who carry rifles all the time. On April 16, Pawan, a conductor of the Sri Krishna Rath buses that used to ply between Patna and Muzaffarpur, was shot dead by two persons. The incident had occurred at Ram Lakhan Path under the Kankerbagh police station. Pawan was dragged out of the moving bus and shot. The murder was a warning to Ravikant, as Pawan was close to him,” the source added.

After the murder last night, friends and employees of Ravikant staged a protest, shouted slogans against the police and shattered the glasses of a number of vehicles at the bus stand.

To express their solidarity, the owners of long-distance buses today refused to ply from the bus stand, much to the chagrin of the passengers.

“No buses are plying. I have to get to Purnea today. When I reached the bus stand from the hotel, I had no idea that such an incident has occurred. Now, I am stuck here,” Ramranjan Yadav, a resident of Gaya, said.

Ravikant hailed from the Ratu Road area in Ranchi. He had a fleet of 35 buses that used to ply to different parts of the state as well as to Ranchi and Calcutta. In Patna, he used to reside with his wife and children at Urmila Rita Apartments on road number 2 of Rajvanshi Nagar under Shastri Nagar police station. Bhanu and his another brother, Mantu Choudhary, were his business associates.

No senior police officer was available for comment.