Nakashipara (Nadia), Nov. 5: A gang last night barged into the house of a CPM panchayat samity member in Nadia and shot him dead along with his wife after locking the rest of the family in their rooms.

Mrinal Kanti Sarkar’s eldest son Asim said: “We had gone to bed in our rooms around 10pm. Around 11.15, I heard people kicking the door. Then I heard four shots. I tried to get out of the room but found it locked from outside. I began shouting. Soon my brothers also started shouting for help.”

Neighbours, too, heard the shots. One of them rushed out but was stopped by a member of the gang guarding the gate of the Sarkars’ home in Nakashipara, a Maoist hotbed, about 130km from Calcutta.

Nadia superintendent of police H.K. Kusumakar said it was not known who killed 62-year-old Mrinal Kanti and Namita, 50, but the Maoists’ hand could not be ruled out.

“We have received an FIR from the family of the deceased but no one is named in it. We are investigating whether the Maoists had a role to play. We have sought the CID’s help,” Kusumakar said.

“We cannot fathom who could have done this. So, we did not accuse anyone in the FIR,” said Asim.

Sniffer dogs were borrowed from the Border Security Force and taken to the spot today.

Mrinal Kanti, a retired headmaster of Patikabari Primary School, and Namita, a leader of the local women’s unit of the CPM, took two bullets each in the chest and abdomen. Two bullets pierced their bodies and hit a wall.

Villagers said Mrinal Kanti could have been on the Maoist hit list as the rebels had accused him of helping the police arrest CPI (Maoist) leader Chandi Sarkar from Nakashipara three years ago.

The retired head master lived in a mud house with his wife, three sons and their wives.

About 15 minutes after the shooting, neighbours gathered the courage to enter the Sarkars’ house and found the doors to the rooms of Mrinal Kanti’s sons locked from outside.

Buses looted

Armed robbers last night stopped two long-distance buses and looted nearly 100 passengers at gunpoint at Raghunathgunj in Murshidabad, about 255 km from Calcutta.

Police said Rs 31,000 in cash, cellphones and wrist watches were looted.

One of the buses was coming to Calcutta from Siliguri. No arrest has been made.