A 32-year-old man was stabbed to death while four others were injured, one of them critically, at a wedding anniversary party in Sector IV of Bokaro steel city on Sunday night.

Pritam Singh, a road contractor, was stabbed by three unidentified youths around 10.45pm.

According to city DSP Ajay Kumar, the three attackers, who are also road contractors having criminal backgrounds, came to the party thrown by tent house owner Manish Singh at Budhha Vihar colony to celebrate his parents' 50th marriage anniversary.

"The trio soon got into an altercation with road contractors Manoj Singh, Shiv Shankar Sharma and Sanjiv Singh, over some project. The argument snowballed following which the accused men took out daggers and went on a stabbing spree," said Kumar, who along with Sector IV OC A.K. Mishra and Bokaro SP Y.S. Ramesh rushed to the spot.

Pritam, also a petty criminal, rushed to control the trio but fell prey to their fury. Manoj, Shiv Shankar and Sanjiv, who also have criminal backgrounds, got injured and were rushed to Bokaro general hospital where condition of Manoj is stated to be critical while Pritam was declared brought dead.

Home Guard Upendra Rai also got hurt when he tried to stop the trio from fleeing on their motorcycle.

"The attackers belong to the dreaded Khopri gang. We are conducting raids to arrest them," said DSP Kumar on Monday.