The Bihar police said they are trying to find the accused. (Representational)
A man was shot dead in Bihar's Purnia when he was on his way to cast his vote in the election on Saturday, the police said. The man was the younger brother of jailed criminal Bittu Singh, accused in more than a dozen murder and extortion cases.
30-year-old Beni Singh was shot dead at Sarsi village in Dhamdaha assembly constituency by a man on a motorbike, Superintendent of Police Vishal Sharma said.
He said the accused shot eight bullets at the man and fled from the spot.
Beni Singh was killed around 100 meters from a polling booth near his home when he was going to cast his vote, the police said.
Locals and the man's relatives started protesting after the incident following which the top cop and other officials reached the spot. The SP said the situation is under control now.
The police said they have sent the body to the Sadar Hospital for post-mortem and are conducting raids to find the accused.
Bittu Singh, who is lodged in the Bhagalpur Central Jail, faces more than 12 murder and extortion cases in the district.
In another incident, police had to open fire in the air to disperse a crowd from a polling booth at Alinagar village under the Dhamdaha constituency as they tried to disturb the poll process, the police said.
They said the trouble started when paramilitary force personnel on poll duty asked voters to maintain proper queue. However, some of the voters tried to create a ruckus at the booth and attacked the paramilitary personnel, leaving one of them injured, the police said.
The police then open fired in the air to disperse the crowd, they said.
Later, voting resumed at the polling booth and continued without disruption, they said, adding four people have been arrested over the incident.