Unidentified gunmen shot dead a builder in Adityapur, around 6km from the heart of the steel city, on Friday night.

Ranjit Baij, 29, was returning home on his bike when he was killed near Bihari Bustee in Anandpur in Satbahani locality, under Adityapur police station limits.

He was shot in the head from close range around 10pm by a gang of assailants who were apparently waiting for him, hiding in a bush.

As Ranjit fell from the bike, the commotion attracted some local residents as well as police. Some of the residents who knew Ranjit informed his brother Pradeep Baij who came to the spot and rushed him to Tata Main Hospital. At the hospital, Ranjit was declared as brought dead.

Adityapur police station officer in-charge (OC) Sushma Kumari said that from the preliminary investigation the murder seemed the fallout of business rivalry over land deals.

The OC said Ranjit and his business partner Sanyashi Mahto had started a firm, Maa Tara Enterprises, and had set up an office in Gamharia for it.

“The criminals must have followed the victim’s activities and had attacked him by coming out of a bush in Satbahani locality,” the OC said.

She said Ranjit was close to Santosh Thapa, who is the main accused in the murder of Shanbabu Mukhi, a man associated with the Congress.

The OC also said that the cops have gathered enough information regarding the murder and they suspect that it happened due to dispute over a plot of land that the victim had purchased recently.

The police, however, have no idea exactly how many criminals had attacked Ranjit as they fled after killing the builder.

The cops have recovered an empty cartridge and sent the body to the MGM Medical College mortuary for post-mortem..

Sandeep Kumar, a friend of the victim, said Ranjit's company had bought a huge plot of land at Anandpur where Ranjit had to deal with a dispute over it.