Jajpur: At least three persons, including a woman, were injured when a retired Indian Army jawan allegedly opened fire at them from his airgun over a land dispute at Bharatpur village in Jenapur police limits here on Wednesday.

The injured have been identified as Sujata Pradhan and her two sons Ranjan Kumar Pradhan and Bibek Pradhan.

All the injured were rushed to the community health care centre at Dharmasala and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for treatment.

The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when Maheswar Das, a former jawan of the army, was on his way to the local market on a motorcycle.

His neighbour, Khirod Pradhan, allegedly waylaid him and abused him in filthy language.

Hearing the ruckus, Khirod's wife Sujata and sons Bibek and Ranjan allegedly came out of their house and beat up Das mercilessly.

"There was a long-standing land dispute between the Das and Pradhan families. The incident took an ugly turn on Wednesday when the Pradhans beat up Das mercilessly seeing him alone on the village road. Das suffered injuries following the group attack," said Jenapur police station inspector-in-charge Susanta Kumar Das.

In a fit of anger, Das then took his airgun from his house and started firing at them. The trio suffered minor injuries, the police officer said.

On being informed, local police rushed to the spot and sent all the injured - including Das and the Pradhan family members - to hospital for treatment.

Two separate complaints have been filed from both parties in this connection and further investigation is on.

Life sentence

A local court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the murder of a tribal man four years ago. The convict, Rikul Munda, axed Lambua Munda to death on November 9, 2014 at Trilochanpur village of the district.

The murder was committed on witchcraft related superstitious belief.

Keonjhar district and sessions judge Pabitra Mohan Samal, adjudicating the case, pronounced life imprisonment verdict on Tuesday on the basis of circumstantial evidence of the crime.