Guwahati hotel shooting: Five killed, accused held, SIT formed

Assam Police on Tuesday, October 27, set up a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the killing of five people, including two women, at a hotel in Guwahati on Monday night. Guwahati Joint Commissioner of Police Ankur Jain will lead the team.

The accused, 34-year-old Ghanakanta Gogoi from Dibrugarh, was arrested within an hour of the shooting, police said.

What happened

According to a police statement, the local police station received information at around 9 pm on Monday, October 26, that several shots had been fired inside a hotel in the Ulubari area, near Bora Service on GS Road. Media reports identified the hotel as Bilas Inn.

Police found four people dead in the reception area and two others injured on the approach road. Both injured were taken to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where one of them died.

The victims

Police named the dead as Bhudev Bharali, 65; Helena Bharali, 58; Debarshi Kashyap, 39; Rinika Kashyap, 30; and Narayan Das, 48. Helena Bharali was a co-owner of the property. Satyendra Pathak, 43, is being treated at GMCH.

Guwahati Police Commissioner Partha Sarathi Mahanta said four of those killed belonged to the hotel owner's family and the fifth was also associated with the owners.

Lease dispute under investigation

Police said the owners had signed a five-year lease with Gogoi on September 10, 2025, at a monthly rent of about ₹1.8 lakh. After he renovated the property, disagreements arose over how the premises were being used and over certain facilities.

A meeting was set for October 26 at the hotel to settle the issues. According to police, an argument broke out before the meeting began, turned into a physical fight, and the accused then opened fire on six people.

Pistol seized

Police seized a .32-calibre pistol believed to have been used. Reports said Gogoi held a firearm licence issued in Nagaland and was wearing camera-equipped smart glasses at the time; any footage recovered could help investigators reconstruct the sequence of events. Reports also said he had been involved in a property-related case in Jorhat in 2024.

Police have described the lease dispute as the preliminary line of investigation, and the exact sequence of events is still being examined.