Malda, Aug. 12: Three members of a family were found dead in their hut locked from inside in a village near Baishnabnagar this evening.

People of Dhima, who were alerted by a stench emanating from the hut, found a man hanging from the ceiling and a woman and a child lying dead on the floor.

Additional police superintendent Sujit Sarkar said the dead were Gopal Das (25), his wife Shikha (23) and their four-year-old son Kunal.

“As the bodies were highly decomposed, we suspect that the deaths had occurred at least five-six days ago,” the police officer said.

He added that in all probability, Gopal had poisoned his wife and son before he hanged himself.

“It might have been a family dispute that had made the youth take this extreme step. It is possible that the row could be from reasons of being poor and finding it difficult to make ends meet,” he said.

Sarkar said the bodies would be kept at the police station tonight.

“The state of the bodies does not allow us to send them to the district hospital for post-mortem. Instead, we will send the corpses to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital tomorrow,” he said.

The officer said inquiries revealed that Gopal and Shikha had married five years back.

Former CPM leader and the member of the Binnagar gram panchayat Ajit Das said Gopal used to go to Delhi for construction works.

“We had often heard him quarrel with his wife. But we never thought that such a tragic incident would take place,” Das said.

He added that Gopal had not been going to other states for work for the past one year. “With the rice almost sown, there is hardly any work available now. How could he survive without looking for work elsewhere. Maybe, he could be suffering from some debilitating disease that might have prevented him from doing hard labour,” the gram panchayat member said.

Biswanath Ghosh, the local CPM MLA, said he failed to understand why such an extreme step was taken. He said his party would make an inquiry.

District magistrate Chittaranjan Das, who is going to Calcutta tomorrow, said he had asked the local block development officer to find out the reason for the tragedy. “I will call him every day to know the progress of the inquiry,” the district magistrate said.