His hero? Gabbar Singh. His favourite accessory? A bandolier (bullet belt) slung over his shoulder.

Surya Golder’s hero worship — that had made him a feared name in the world of crime in North 24-Parganas — has finally proved to be his undoing.

Golder is one of the main accused among the six arrested in nightlong raids on Monday in connection with the dacoity and murder in the house of Bimal Das at Kanchrapara.

Police picked up the gang’s trail on the basis of the jeweller’s description of a dacoit with a bandolier. That, the police soon found out, was a Golder trademark.

During the raid carried out by over 15 goons at the Gandhi More address early on February 21, Bimal’s wife Chandana was allegedly pushed off the third-floor balcony while trying to alert neighbours. She bled to death on the street below.

The dacoits later decamped with jewellery and cash worth Rs 20 lakh.

“We have arrested six people from the gang. We are looking for the rest. We are yet to recover the loot,” said Supratim Sarkar, the superintendent of police (North 24-Parganas).

Golder, Ratan Tarui, Biswajit Mondal, Sujit Das, Babar Ali Mondal and Tapan Biswas were produced in Barrackpore court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody till March 5. Six revolvers, two pipeguns and cartridges, iron rods and some tools to break open locks and doors were seized from the gang.

The vital clue had been provided by Bimal Das when he told the police that one of the goons calling the shots was “carrying a single-barrel gun with a broad bullet strap slung over his the shoulder”.

Sketches were made and circulated. Officials of Chakdah police station were quick to point out that Surya Golder was the only goon in the area who would do a Gabbar.

Golder was the first to be picked up from Chimili, in Nadia’s Chakdah, following which the others were rounded up in raids at New Barrackpore and Naihati.

Reconstructing the tragic turn of events around 4am last Thursday, the police said that Chandana, 42, had rushed out to the balcony to try and alert the neighbours.

The dacoits had finished looting their ground-floor jewellery shop by then and were forcing her husband Bimal to give up the keys to some almirahs and vaults.

The Das home is bordered on four sides by a cinema hall, the main road, a narrow lane and a cluster of about 400 shops. At that time of the morning, the streets were deserted.

Before Chandana could shout out, one of the dacoits gagged her from behind. Two others also tried to overpower her and drag her back into the room. In the scuffle that ensued, Chandana was pushed precariously close to an edge of the balcony that did not have a guard rail, as construction was under way.

It is still not quite clear whether Chandana was deliberately pushed to her death or whether she slipped and fell while grappling with the goons.

“Whatever be the case, we will slap murder charges on at least three men who were present on the verandah at that moment. After all, even if she slipped and fell, it was under pressure from the dacoits,” said a police officer.

Chandana’s husband and children have insisted that she was pushed off the verandah and killed.