Krishnagar, Jan. 27: A man described as “short-tempered” by his brother shot his wife and mother dead with his family gun before killing himself in Nadia last night.

Earlier in the evening, Jamshed Mondal, 40, had slammed his dinner plate on the floor as he did not like the food.

“His wife, Sushma, also did not take dinner and followed him into their room,” said Jamshed’s younger brother Ansar.

The rest of the family heard the couple quarrel, but went to sleep as such tiffs were not unusual. They were shaken out of sleep by a gunshot around 2am. “We rushed to his room knowing the gun was kept there. When we asked him what happened, he coolly said he had shot his wife,” said Ansar, a farmer.

Jamshed’s mother Isharul, 70, slapped him. “Sushma was lying on the bed clutching six-month-old daughter Rajashri, who was crying,” said Ansar.

Jamshed dragged his mother to the courtyard and shot her in the chest. He allegedly chased his brothers and their wives with the gun before they called police.

“By the time the police arrived, Jamshed was lying dead next to his mother,” said Kalyani subdivisional officer Arnab Ghosh.

Jamshed, son of an affluent farmer in Narkeldanga village of Chakdah, 65km from Calcutta, had worked for a private security firm for 20 years.

Ansar said: “He became very short-tempered while working there. He quit the job, unable to cope with the pressure.”