Aurangabad: Armed criminals today shot dead a shopkeeper at a village in Aurangabad district of Bihar, police said.

The incident happened at Santhua village and the shopkeeper has been identified as Sohan Sao (35), a resident of Simra village in the district.

Aurangabad Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Ajay Narayan Yadav said, "The shopkeeper was into food grain business for past some time. His wife Pratima Devi has accused one Shankar Singh, a rice mill owner, for the murder."

The SDPO said the deceased's wife has alleged that Sao was under debt of Rs 8 lakh belonging to the mill owner, who used to pressurise him for the recovery. He had also threatened Sao of killing him on past occasions.

The police is investigating the matter. Postmortem has been performed on Sao's body and it has been handed over to his family members.