Rourkela, April 17: Four members of the Pahadi Cheetah, a goon’s gang of Jharkhand, gunned down four persons at three various places here late last night.

Around midnight, they entered the house of one Niru Das, a Mahua trader and hauler machine owner of Tangargaon. The goons entered Das’s bedroom and shot him on his chest and head. Das died on spot. The murder took place in the presence of his wife.

Sources said Das’s head was almost blown away by impact of the gunshot. After killing Das, they entered the house of Raja Singh, who was a restaurant manager at Tangargaon. They dragged Singh out of his house and killed him.

The victims were killed allegedly for refusing to pay extortion amount to the outfit.

The goons’ next target was Bimal Tirky, a student. Tirky was returning alone after attending a marriage party at a village.

The goons’ last victim was the ward member of Baradema village, Gosmer Bara. He was killed as the criminals suspected that he was a police informer. The gang members broke open the front door of Bara’s house and dragged him out. The criminals later killed him in front of his house.

Sundergarh superintendent of police Sanjeev Arora said: “Four persons were involved in the killings at three various places.” The police have recovered the bodies and sent them for post-mortem. A manhunt has been launched to nab the goons.

Besides, security forces have been deployed at the places of incidents.

The police had picked up four gang members four days ago from Rajgangpur.

However, Arora said: “We picked up four persons, but they belonged to the PLFI and not to this gang.”