Armed men shot dead a 70-year-old man in Samastipur district, Bihar, early on Monday after he refused to open his shop to give them khaini (chewing tobacco). Two people have been arrested in connection with the case so far.

The deceased, Baijnath Mishra, ran a grocery shop with his two sons in front of their house, which also sold khaini and engaged in small-scale farming.

“Our neighbours Lal Jha, Shivam Mahto, Rajgir Paswan and others came in an inebriated state to our house at around 11pm on Sunday night and asked us to open the shop and give them khaini. We refused as it was very late. They became angry and started abusing us. We objected, and they assaulted us. My younger brother Yashwant Mishra and I were injured,” Baijnath’s son Hemant Mishra
told reporters.

Several villagers assembled hearing the commotion and intervened, causing the accused to leave. Hemant, who suffered head injuries, went to the Dalsinghsarai sub-divisional hospital for treatment.

“I returned home after the doctors there bandaged my head injury and gave me some medicines. It was already very late and I went inside to rest. My father was sleeping at the dalan (outer verandah meant for visitors in village houses).
We suddenly heard a gunshot and rushed outside to see my father lying dead in a pool of blood on his cot,”
Hemant said.

Baijnath was shot at around 2am, following which Hemant informed the police. Police sent Baijnath’s body for postmortem. He was shot in the temple.

An FIR was registered at Dalsinghsarai police station against eight people. “We have arrested two of the accused — Shivam Mahto and Rajgir Paswan — so far.
Both of them are among those named in the FIR. We are conducting raids to apprehend the remaining six people allegedly involved in the crime,” Dalsinghsarai sub-divisional police officer Vivek Kumar Sharma told The Telegraph.