Angry residents of Pithoria village blocked the Ranchi-Patratu Road on Sunday to demand the arrest of the accused involved in the murder of a 35-year-old dealer of a public distribution shop, Kartik Keshri, who was killed on Saturday night in Pithoria.

The blockade started at 7am choking traffic for almost two hours. The obstructions were lifted only after police assured the 300 odd protesters that the case will be marked as priority for investigation.

The Ranchi-Patratu Road also called Kanke Road is one of the important state highways that passes through Kanke which connects Ranchi with Ramgarh district.

Between 8.30pm and 9pm, when Keshri was returning home with his wife on a motorcycle he stopped the two-wheeler at Badu Chowk under the jurisdiction of Kanke police station to attend nature’s call. Suddenly riders on two motorcycles came out of nowhere and assaulted him unprovoked. He suffered critical head injuries. Soon after, the police arrived and took him to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

“The motive behind the murder is yet to be found out. We have spoken to his wife. We are trying to procure closed-circuit television camera footage of the road. Intelligence have been activated to identify the people involved in the incident,” said deputy superintendent of police (headquarter 1) Amit Renu.

A protesting resident said: “We are angry and confused on why somebody would kill such an innocent youth.”