Cuttack, July 14: Unidentified criminals today hacked a 40-year-old man to death near Ahalya Mandap, raising concerns over the patrolling measures by police.

The deceased, identified as Ganesh Rout, 40, of Shankarpur area, was a civil contractor. Rout was killed in front of his five-year-old son. Though the exact reason behind the murder remained unclear, the police suspected past rivalry behind the killing.

The incident occurred around 7am when Rout was on his way to drop his son to school on a motorcycle. Sources said the criminals had intercepted Rout’s motorcycle and attacked him with sharp weapons and escaped from the spot.

“We suspect the involvement of three to four persons in the incident. A case has been registered, and we are investigating the exact reason behind the murder,” said deputy commissioner of police Sanjiv Arora.

Arora said the deceased, Rout, had criminal antecedents. He was staying with his family near Parida Sahi at Shankarpur and used to work as a contractor for the past couple of years. Rout was one of the key accused in a case of murder that took place around 15 years ago.

“It seems that past rivalry could be one of the reasons behind the murder. We have got some leads and are probing into the case,” Arora said.

“My brother had gone to drop his son to school, and later, we came to know about the incident. We do not know whether he had some enmity with anyone or not,” said Manoranjan Rout, the deceased’s brother.

It is suspected that the criminals had been closely monitoring Rout’s movements as the incident took place barely 100 metres from his house.

The murder has sparked off resentment in various quarters as the incident took place only two days after the police had added 16 new high-power motorcycles in its police control room system in a view to check crimes in the city.