A real estate developer with an alleged criminal background was shot at in Howrah’s Liluah on Friday night outside a multi-storeyed building on Netaji Subhas Road moments after he stepped out of a birthday party.

Rajesh Singh fell after being hit in the abdomen. He was first rushed to a hospital in Howrah and later shifted to a private facility in Calcutta.

On Saturday, doctors told police his condition was critical.

Eyewitnesses told cops Rajesh was standing outside “Indradhanush apartment” in Liluah when two bike-borne men came down Netaji Subhas Road and fired at him from a close range.

As Rajesh slumped on the road, the men with helmets covering their faces sped away on the two-wheeler.

This was around 10.30pm when a birthday party was underway on the ground floor of the apartment building and Rajesh had just stepped out.

A section of residents in Liluah said Rajesh lived alone in the building outside which he was shot at.

An erstwhile industrial hub with iron and steel rolling mills, Liluah began witnessing a change after the factories started closing down. Residential and commercial buildings began replacing the industrial units. Shopping malls, schools and markets sprang up.

The change in the landscape also saw a shift in the type of crime in Liluah, senior police officers said.

Rajesh’s brother Nitesh said he wasn’t sure why the men targeted his brother. A section aware of Rajesh’s alleged criminal past said the attack could be retaliation from a Howrah-based gang who have been following his movements closely for some time.

Senior officers in the Howrah police commissionerate, who went to the spot on Friday night, said Rajesh was allegedly involved in a murder in Howrah in 2011 and was jailed as well. After his release, Rajesh began developing real estate in and around Liluah using his network, they said.

“We have collected CCTV images of the attack and are going through them. The men on two-wheeler will be identified. The motive behind the murder attempt is not clear,” said Bishop Sarkar, the deputy commissioner of police, Howrah North division.

The attack on the developer by bike-borne men in Liluah on Friday came two days after an inspector of police was found near a car with a gun-shot injury on his left arm in Howrah’s Ghoshpara in Shibpur.

The inspector, Jayanata Pal, who was admitted to a private hospital on Andul Road, was discharged on Saturday. He has been relieved of his responsibilities as the inspector-in-charge of Chanditala police station.