A prisoner from Patna’s Beur Central Jail, who had come to Deoghar in Jharkhand to be produced in a criminal case, was shot dead by an unidentified person near Deoghar Civil Court on Saturday morning.

Amit Kumar Singh, who was serving a life term at the Patna jail in connection with a murder case, had come with police escort from Bihar to Deoghar on Friday night for production in a 2012 abduction case of Deoghar trader Chanchal Kothari.

Singh, in his 30s, was a native of Bihta in Patna.

“He came to the court with police escort from Bihar at around 11am. After being produced in the court, he went to meet his lawyer (Rajiv Kumar Dev) in his chamber and while coming out he was shot in the head from a point blank range by a lone assailant who also fired a few rounds in the air. However, the assailant left behind his pistol while fleeing the spot. We have recovered the country-made pistol along with two empty cartridges and one pellet from the site,” Deoghar superintendent of police Subhash Chandra Jat said.

The victim was a history sheeter and was involved in the murder of a film hall owner. He has over a dozen cases lodged against him in different police stations of Jharkhand and Bihar.

“Prima facie it seemed three bullets have been fired. Post-mortem is being done. More details will be known only after getting the post-mortem report,” Jat said.

Jat confirmed that no one else was injured in the firing near the Deoghar civil court.