A Congress leader and pronounced political adversary of Dhanbad’s influential Singh Mansion was shot dead at a wedding reception on Wednesday night, triggering a 24-hour shutdown and elaborate police bandobast in the coal town on Thursday.

Suresh Singh (55), also an affluent coal trader, was attending the function at Dhanbad Club around 9.45pm when four men pumped six bullets into his body. He was rushed to BCCL’s central hospital, but breathed his last within half an hour. The club is within 100 metres of the district police chief’s residence and one of the four assailants was arrested from the murder scene. An FIR has also been registered against Sanjeev Singh, the son of Jharia MLA and Singh Mansion bahu Kunti Singh, besides two other members of the family.

An uneasy calm reigned over the town since morning as shops and business establishments downed shutters. Vehicle flow also reduced to a trickle. Earlier in the day, simmering anger over the Congress leader’s killing erupted after the body was released from the mortuary.

A group of party supporters marched to Kunti Singh’s residence with Suresh Singh’s body around 1.30am and pelted stones, prompting police intervention and extra cover for the BJP MLA.

Senior police officers, including North Chotanagpur IG M.L. Meena, coal belt DIG lakshman Prasad Singh, SP Ravi Kant Dhan and DSP (law and order) Sanjay Ranjan Singh, are camping in Dhanbad to monitor investigations.

The DIG, who reached the town in the wee hours, said additional policemen from Giridih and Bokaro had been deployed to thwart any attempt at violent retaliation by Congress supporters.

The SP said the arrested youth — Pawan Kumar Paswan, a resident of New Colony in Saraidhela — was being grilled and video footage of the reception being examined for further clues.

According to eyewitnesses, Suresh Singh arrived at the reception of Rohit Singh, son of Hotel Zeal proprietor Shyam Sunder Singh, at Dhanbad Club around 7.15pm and left for another marriage function at Railway Institute around 8.15pm. He returned to Dhanbad Club around 9.15pm and was enjoying an orchestra when he was shot at. The youth nabbed from the scene by the Congress leader’s bodyguards, however, did not have firearms on him.

IG Meena said they had chanced upon “vital clues to the murder during the course of investigations”. He confirmed that the Jharia MLA’s son Sanjeev, brother-in-law and chairman of Balia District Board Ramadhir Singh and the son of the latter, Sashi Singh, had been named in the complaint lodged by the victim’s father, Tej Narayan Singh. He also said that one of the names in the FIR had come to the fore during preliminary investigations.

According to the IG, Tej Narayan, in his FIR, had mentioned the enmity between his son and the Singh family. And the antagonism was more than just political.

Coal trader Suresh Singh first made headlines when he challenged Kunti Singh for the Jharia hot seat in the 2005 Assembly polls. Despite a major debacle, he once again threw down the gauntlet to the MLA in 2009.

A man of dubious distinction, Suresh Singh’s name figured in the murder of another coal trader, Sanjay Singh, in 1996. Sanjay was the husband of Kunti Singh’s sister-in-law. The CID, however, gave Suresh a clean chit. In 2003, he was once again accused in the murder case of coal trader Pramod Singh, a Singh Mansion loyalist. The CBI is still probing the case, which is pending in Supreme Court.

This was the third attack on Suresh Singh, arguably an act of violent retribution by his arch-rivals. The first assault had taken place in 1985 in the Sonpur Assembly constituency of Bihar. Suresh Singh was campaigning for his brother-in-law Sakaldeo Singh, who was contesting against Lalu Prasad, when he was shot at. The second attack happened in 1996 in Dhanbad. Suresh and his then business partner Sanjay were in a car when they were fired upon. Sanjay was killed.

The Congress leader, who cheated death twice, was cremated at Mohalbani ghat of Damodar around 1.30pm on Thursday. Leader of the Opposition in Jharkhand assembly and veteran trade union leader Rajendra Prasad Singh, Dhanbad MLA Mannan Mallick and others paid their last respects.