Rajnagar, April 22: Suspected Maoists today gunned down a CPM leader in Birbhum, a Red bastion where the rebels had never struck before.

Schoolteacher Sridam Das, 48, was a former secretary of the Tantipara CPM local committee in Rajnagar, about 300km from Calcutta. He was on his way to the school when he was shot.

The Maoists have targeted CPM leaders in Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Nadia. To this list, Birbhum would be added if police conclude that Sridam’s assailants were indeed Maoists. Rajnagar is close to the border with Jharkhand, a rebel stronghold.

Dipak Dolui, a farmer who witnessed the killing, said: “Around 7.20am, I saw three youths waiting beside a motorcycle. On seeing Sridambabu coming, one of them went up to him and pushed him off his bicycle. The others caught hold of him. As he tried to free himself, he was shot in the head.” The youths would be around 28-30 in age, the farmer added.

As Sridam lay on the ground, Dipak ran towards them with a bamboo stick. “But one of them aimed the revolver at me and shouted: ‘If you come forward, we will shoot you too’,” he said. “They shouted Maobad zindabad and rode off towards a jungle near the Jharkhand border.”

In November last year, the Maoists had allegedly damaged a part of the Suri-Andal railway track in a blast in Khoirasol, which is in Birbhum. Suri is the district’s headquarters.

Birbhum SP L.N. Meena said: “We feel that Maoists shot Sridam Das.” But the police are also probing if a feud within the party had anything to do with the killing. “Sridam’s family told us he was not seeing eye to eye with some CPM leaders,” a police officer said.

Sridam, who has a son and a daughter, quit as secretary of the local committee a few years ago to concentrate on teaching, but remained a key member of the committee.