Four men tried to loot a wholesaler of shoes at Fateh-Ullah Road under Lower Bazaar police station area in the city on Tuesday.

The incident occurred around 10am when Rabindra Singh a.k.a Sittu, a resident of Kishan Singh Colony on Station Road, had just reached his shop to open it.

“Singh was first in the locality to open his shop, which was half an hour before the rest,” said a local resident. “The armed criminals noticed Singh opening his shop and approached him. Singh raised an alarm. We rushed to the spot. One of the four criminals attacked Singh with a revolver butt and escaped from the spot after opening fire.”

Lower Bazaar police station officer in-charge (OC) Satish Kumar said CCTV footage related to the incident has been collected. “It is suspected that the criminals were drug addicts,” the OC said. “Singh had no cash but apparently the criminals though that Singh being a wholesaler always keeps sufficient cash with him.”

On January 21, three members of a family and their tenant sustained injuries after a youth attacked them with a knife at Nezamnagar, about 2km from Tuesday’s place of occurrence under the Hindpiri police station area in the city.

A day after one of the victims died, Mohammed Quarban, who according to cops was a rag-picker addicted to drugs, was arrested.

On January 23 too a similar incident was reported when another suspected drug addict had stabbed electric mechanic Ranjeet Kerketta, 34, to death near Hanuman temple in Kadru under Argora police station area. Police are yet to arrest the culprit.