A 45-year-old man was gunned down by unknown miscreants late on Monday evening near the Gopalpur bus-stand under the Hemgiri police station of Sundargarh district.
The deceased was identified as Sukru Naik, a resident of Talapada.
According to sources, Naik had come to the bus-stoppage when the miscreants shot him on the chest from a very close range, following which he died on the spot.
After getting information, a team of police from the Balinga outpost reached the spot and sent the dead body for postmortem and started investigation into the incident.
However it was suspected that Gopalpur being a coal mine area, the crime might have some link with coal movement as hundreds of locals are engaged in coal transportation works.