An inspector with the Provincial Armed Constabulary was shot dead before his wife and daughter by a lone gunman in Lucknow city at 2.30am on Monday.

Satish Kumar Singh had returned to his home in Krishna Nagar Colony after celebrating Diwali at his sister’s home in the city and was opening the lock of the gate when someone hiding nearby shot him twice.

Singh’s wife and 10-year-old daughter were still in the car and had dozed off when the shots woke them and they saw him slump to the ground.

“We were asleep in the car. Maybe my husband thought he would wake us up after opening the lock,” Shobha Singh told reporters on Monday afternoon.

“I saw someone tall and dark running away from our gate after shooting my husband. The killer disappeared in the dark. I believe he had help, because he vanished quickly down the street. I don’t know how many people were there to kill my husband.”

Singh, 52, was posted with the 4th Battalion of the PAC in Allahabad and had come home to celebrate Diwali.

“Last month, I had heard him talking to someone angrily over the phone. He was talking about some blue film and shouting at that person,” Shobha said.

“I think that person lives in the nearby Shringar Nagar area.”

She said her husband had recently been “courting another woman”.

“We fought when I came to know that he was courting another woman. My father-in-law is aware of this,” she said.

Vineet Jaiswal, deputy commissioner of police (Lucknow west), said the police had collected CCTV footage from the area.

“The police arrived at the spot after receiving a call from the wife of the victim and rushed him to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” the officer said.

“We have a few leads. Five investigation teams have been formed.”