Rakesh Kohli, 34, was seriously injured when four men attacked him with a sword and sticks at Devnagar under Sitaramdera police station area on Thursday night.

A relative of Kohli claimed that a drug peddlers’ gang was behind the attack.

Kohli has been admitted in Tata Main Hospital with wounds to the head, neck and other parts of the body. According to sources in the hospital, the building materials supplier is out of danger and is expected to be discharged in a couple of days.

According to a relative of Kohli, the victim had come to his in-laws’ house at Devnagar along with a friend around 9.30pm on Thursday.

“After an hour or so Kohli, who is a resident of Golmuri, wanted to return home. As he started his bike and his friend, Budha Prasad, sat pillion, four youths surrounded the duo and started hitting them with sticks,” the relative said, requesting anonymity. “One of the attackers took out a sword and hit Kohli on the head, causing him to fall down. The attacker kept hitting Kohli repeatedly.”

Kohli’s friend Prasad was also injured in the assault.

Kohli’s relative said that around a fortnight ago police had busted a gang selling brown sugar in Devnagar.

“Though Kohli had no role behind the arrest of the drug peddlers in the locality, their associates suspected that Kohli was behind the police crackdown on the gang. This was the reason that that Kohli was attacked on Thursday night,” the relative claimed.

Sitaramdera police station officer in-charge (OC) Anjani Kumar said that as the police are yet to get any statement or any FIR, no arrest had yet been made.

“The victim is still undergoing treatment at Tata Main Hospital. We will arrest the culprits involved in the incident only when we get a statement from him,” the OC said.

He said the other injured, Prasad, had also not given any statement yet.