Guwahati: Five people, four of them from the same family, were killed and another sustained a gunshot injury in a shooting at a hotel owned by the family in Guwahati on Tuesday evening over a suspected property dispute.Within an hour of the incident, Guwahati Police nabbed the alleged killer, Ghanakanta Gogoi, and seized a licensed .32-bore pistol from his possession suspected to have been used in the killings.The incident occurred at Hotel Bilas Inn on the city’s busiest arterial road, GS Road, at around 9 pm. Police have not yet revealed the identities of the dead.Guwahati Commissioner of Police Partha Sarathi Mahanta said, “The accused Ghanakanta Gogoi has been apprehended. We suspect the incident stemmed from a dispute between the hotel owners and Gogoi over a lease agreement. Gogoi had taken the hotel on lease last year. The investigation is at an early stage, and all aspects are being examined.”“Four of the dead are from the same family and they are from hotel owners’ side. The fifth dead and the one injured are from the owners’ village,” Mahanta said.Mahanta added that preliminary findings would be verified before any definitive conclusions were drawn, adding that “investigators are expected to establish a clearer picture of the incident by Tuesday.”According to police, six persons were shot, among whom five succumbed. The sixth victim is currently in Guwahati Medical College Hospital. Hospital authorities said injured Satyen Pathak (42) has a bullet injury in his shoulder and is under treatment.A forensic and scientific investigation is underway, with specialised teams examining the crime scene and collecting evidence. Police said further investigation was being conducted to establish the complete sequence of events and determine the precise circumstances that led to the shooting.The killings have revived memories of the years when militancy brought violence to Guwahati’s crowded public places. The deadliest attack came on Oct 30, 2008, when serial blasts by NDFB (RD) ripped through Ganeshguri, Panbazar and Fancy bazaar, killing over 55 people in the city and wounding more than 160. Thirty others were killed in other districts.Those blasts came during a long phase of attacks blamed on militant outfits that steadily eroded public support for them. In Jan 2007, a wave of attacks blamed on ULFA killed 62 people, mostly Hindi-speaking migrant workers.
