Police officers investigate the murder site in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

A 32-year-old contractor was shot dead by two bike borne assailants at Krishnapuri’s Road No. 5 under Chutia police station area on Sunday.

According to sources, Pawan Thakur was shot twice from close range while he was supervising land measurement in the area around 3pm.

“Thakur had brought a 1.5acre land from someone and was carrying out measurement work on it when two motorcycle-borne criminals shot him dead from close range,” a locality resident said.

City SP R.K. Prasad confirmed the incident but refused to speculate on the causes that might have led to the murder stating that the matter was under investigation.

Officer in charge of Chutia police station Anil Kumar, who visited the spot soon after the incident and recovered one unused cartridges, was not of much help either and refused to paint a sequence of events that might have led to the murder.

“We are yet to identify the criminals. Local residents are tight-lipped about the incident so we have not been able to make progress,” he said

He, however, added that the body bore two bullet injuries, one on the head and the other on the chest, suggesting that the contractor might have been fired at from close range.

“We have recovered and sent the body for post-mortem to RIMS.,” Kumar said.