Four persons, including the wife of Calcutta Tramways Company employee Bikash Majumder, who was shot at allegedly with pellets fired from a pipe gun on Friday morning, were arrested on Sunday.

Police said they have arrested Majumder’s wife Rekha, her paramour, Pradip Dey, who is from Metiabruz; Mohammad Samim Laskar of Basanti, who allegedly opened the fire, and Susanta Adak, also from Metiabruz, who was riding the bike.

All four were produced before the Barrackpore court on Sunday and have been remanded in police custody for 10 days.

They have been charged under sections of attempt to murder and under the Arms Act.

The police suspect Dey to be the alleged mastermind of the shooting, and he had given the contract to Laskar and Adak to execute the operation.

“Initially, we started the probe keeping three things in mind. First, whether Majumder had been accidentally hit, second, whether there was any real estate angle, as several new projects are coming up in the area and third, whether there was any illicit relationship involved. The third one turned out to be correct,” said an officer of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate.

Dey, a relative of Majumder, had allegedly developed a relationship with his wife and had wanted to eliminate Majumder, the police said on Sunday.

The pellet shots that were fired were apparently damp, and so they missed the target. The pipe gun that was used had not been recovered till late on Sunday evening, the cops said.

On Friday around 6.30am, pellets were fired targeting Majumder when he had stepped out of his home at Northern Park in Baranagar to throw garbage at a nearby vat.

He had received minor injuries.

The police had started a case of attempted murder and zeroed in on the man’s wife and her associates.

During the investigation, the police discovered that the two men, who had arrived on a motorbike, were waiting at the turn of a lane where Majumder regularly dumped garbage.

“It was apparent that the assailants knew about Majumder’s daily routine and that there was someone close to him who knew about his movements and was alerting the assailants,” said an officer of Barrackpore police station.

Majumder had a close shave after he managed to duck the pellets that one of the two men fired from the pipe gun.

After shooting, the duo on the bike took the shortest route to the Belgharia Expressway, the police had said.