A Guwahati hotel shooting linked by police to a dispute over a lease agreement left five people dead and one injured on Monday night, with the leaseholder arrested within an hour and a licensed pistol seized from him.
The shooting took place at Hotel Bilas Inn on GS Road, opposite Bora Service, at around 9pm, according to Guwahati police. The hotel is located about 2km from Assam Police headquarters. Police said the victims were associated with the property’s ownership and management.
Four of those killed belonged to the same family, while the fifth victim was from their village, Guwahati police commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta told reporters outside the hotel. The victims included the hotel’s co-owner, her son, daughter-in-law, brother and the property’s caretaker. Police said the identities of three deceased victims were Helena Bharali, Deborshi Kashyap and Narayan Das, while the identities of the remaining two were being verified.
The accused, identified as Ghanakanta Gogoi, had taken the hotel on lease about a year ago, Mahanta said. “Preliminary investigation suggests that the incident stemmed from a property dispute related to the lease agreement of the hotel,” he said. Investigators were examining the circumstances and sequence of events, police said.
Six people sustained gunshot wounds in the incident, of whom five died, according to the police commissioner. The sole survivor, identified as 42-year-old Satyen Pathak, suffered a bullet injury to his shoulder and was receiving treatment at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. A senior doctor said his condition was stable. Pathak was also from the same village as the victims, police said.
Gogoi was apprehended in the Paltan Bazar area within an hour of the shooting. Police seized a licensed .32-bore pistol suspected to have been used in the killings. A forensic and scientific investigation was under way, with specialised teams examining the crime scene and collecting evidence.
The incident places the focus on how a private commercial lease dispute escalated into lethal violence in a busy urban corridor. The available police account identifies the lease agreement as the preliminary trigger, but investigators have not yet disclosed the specific terms of the dispute or the events immediately preceding the shooting.
The property’s location near GS Road and the Assam Police headquarters has also shaped the immediate public-safety response, although police have not stated whether any prior complaint or warning was recorded in connection with the hotel. The investigation is expected to establish the precise sequence of events and the role of the weapon seized from the accused.
Assam Congress president and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi expressed grief over the killings and raised concerns about public safety in Guwahati. In a social media post, he called for a thorough inquiry, accountability and concrete measures to prevent similar incidents, while urging Chief Minister and Home Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to address what he described as concerns over rising crime.
Police said further investigation would establish the circumstances of the shooting. The forensic examination and verification of the victims’ identities remain the next immediate steps in the case.
