The blood-splattered entrance to murdered lawyer N.K. Singh's house. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Aug. 25: Blood spilled in the quiet residential neighbourhood of Adarshnagar this evening as an advocate of Sakchi court, N.K. Singh, was shot dead in front of his house around 7.15 pm.

Police have detained some of his neighbours for interrogation as they suspect that the murder was a fallout of a dispute with a neighbour over a plot of land.

This is the first incident in the district in which a lawyer was gunned down.

“Nothing concrete can be said at this juncture. We are probing several angles and are yet to ascertain the number of people, who were present when the lawyer was shot,” a police official said.

According to the police, around 7.15 pm, some men came to Singh’s house at Pandey Mohallah near Adarshnagar in Sonari and rang the doorbell. As soon as Singh opened the door, the assailants fired two shots from point blank range. While the first shot missed the target, the second one pierced his neck from the right and emerged from the left. Singh collapsed on the spot.

However, a visit to Singh’s house presented a slightly different picture of the shootout. Family members said Singh had walked nearly 15 feet from his house with the killers before they opened fire, leaving him writhing in a pool of blood.

“My sister and brother-in-law were both in the house when the killers rang the bell. My brother-in-law opened the door and my sister watched the proceedings from the second floor. Soon after opening the door, there was an altercation followed by gunshots. On hearing the shots, my sister came running out to find her husband lying on the road,’’ said Raju Singh, the lawyer’s brother-in-law. Singh’s wife immediately called the police.

He was taken to the Tata Main Hospital by some policemen, where he was declared brought dead.

The incident sparked panic in the area and people retreated indoors. Secretary of the District Bar Association Sambhu Dayal condemned the murder.

“He was an executive committee member of the association and was quite active.’’ Dayal said.

The Bar demanded exemplary punishment for those responsible for Singh’s murder.

Echoing similar views, former District Bar Association president Tikaram Majhi demanded that the police immediately arrest the killers of the lawyer. “No one has the right to take the law in his own hands. The police must act with alacrity and arrest the killers,” Majhi said. The District Bar Association has decided to organise a condolence meeting on the court premises tomorrow.

“We are going to host a condolence meeting tomorrow,” Dayal said.