One shot dead at birthday party

Patna: A 20-year-old youth with a criminal antecedent was shot dead by his friends following a dispute during a birthday party celebration in Mokimpur village of the Parsa Bazar police station area in Patna district in the early hours of Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Sunny Kumar, son of Rajiv Ranjan of the same village.Upon receiving the information, the police reached the spot and sent the body to NMCH-Patna for a postmortem examination. One empty bullet was recovered from the scene. A forensic team was called to collect evidence from the crime scene.Parsa Bazar police station SHO Maneka Rani told this newspaper that the incident took place around 2:30am when a birthday celebration was going on at Sunny's friend Rahul Kumar's house.

"An altercation occurred between Sunny and his friend over some personal issues when people gathered for the birthday party of Rahul's nephew. One of the youths took out a pistol and shot Sunny in the chest," she said, adding that he was immediately rushed to Punpun hospital, where medical staff pronounced him dead.

The SHO added, "The location of the incident was notably close, with only 500 metres separating the homes of the victim and one of the accused, Rahul. After the firing, all the accused are absconding. Police are conducting raids for their arrest."The victim's family registered a case against the four named accused. According to the police, Sunny had previous criminal records and went to prison about 3-4 times. He was booked under cases involving loot and the Arms Act.