Gunshot victim Sanjay Mishra at a hospital in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 9: Two incidents of crime — in the span of an hour — rocked the capital city on Saturday.

In the first incident, a jilted lover tried to cut the veins of a nurse in the busy Acharya Vihar area of the city. An hour later, a salesman at a medicine shop in Sastri Nagar area was shot at by goons and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

A 22-year-old woman of Kandhamal worked as a home nurse in Kathajodi Vihar area in Cuttack. Today, she had come to the agency office in Bhubaneswar to draw her monthly salary.

“When I stepped out of the office, Rajesh (the accused) asked me to accompany him. When I refused, he attacked me with a knife. I sustained injuries to both my hands,” she said.

As she screamed for help, locals nabbed Rajesh and handed him over to the Sahid Nagar police. The nurse said the youth from Kandhamal had befriended her four months ago. He was trying to woo her but turned violent when she did not show interest in him.

“The accused was arrested and booked under sections 307, 324 and 326 of the Indian Penal Code,” said deputy commissioner of police Himanshu Lal.

Barely an hour later at 12.30pm, panic struck Sastri Nagar as two motorcycle-borne goons fired at 30-year-old Sanjay Mishra, who worked as a salesman at a private medicine store in the locality. On getting the news, the shop owner rushed to his store to find Sanjay lying in a pool of blood.

“We rushed him to a nearby clinic and later to Kalinga Hospital,” said Soubhagya Sahu.

Later, the police reached the spot and started investigation into the incident. The police said that Sanjay, who hailed from Astarang area, was staying with his father, elder brother and wife at GGP colony in Rasulgarh and was working at Sahu’s store for almost a year.

The police officer said: “Sanjay sustained injuries in his right chest. He was operated upon to remove a bullet lodged in his chest. His condition is now stable.”

Sources said Sanjay had enmity with two persons and he was attacked a month ago in Sahid Nagar area. These persons had earlier attacked him near Jayadev Vihar Square. “Today’s firing was the fall out of an old rivalry and the culprits will be nabbed very soon. Our police teams are searching for them at various places,” said Lal.

The Kharavela Nagar police have registered a case against the goons under sections of the Indian Penal Code. Police are conducting raids at various places in the city and outside to nab the culprits.