A gang of three shot dead a gemologist right in front of his cousin at their residence late on Tuesday.

The incident took place behind the Palace Theatre (now Renuka) in Commercial Street police station limits. Shahid (28), a native of Meerut, in Uttar Pradesh, was living with his cousins on Nala Road.

The only eyewitness, Sajjad, Shahid’s cousin, was yet to come to terms with the situation. He told the police Shahid’s brother had gone out to get an LPG cylinder and he was sitting at the entrance when three men, in their late twenties, walked into the house and picked up a conversation with Shahid.

“I didn’t pay attention to their conversation thinking Shahid knew them well. Within minutes, things went beyond control. At this juncture, I tried to intervene, but the three pushed me against the wall.”

In the melee, one of them took out a knife and stabbed Shahid when he tried to enter another rooom in a bid to escape. Another took out a country-made pistol and shot him dead. Police feel miscreants might have used a .315 country-made pistol. They suspect a family dispute.