(Top)The door of the schoolteacher’s house in Lalgarh, whose locks the Maoists broke. (Above) The table in the bedroom from where the television set has gone missing and the cable is hanging loose. The phone is in place. Pictures by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Lalgarh, July 5: The rule of law may have been forced on Lalgarh by paramilitary troopers, but a schoolteacher who was tried at a Maoist kangaroo court three months ago and fined Rs 3 lakh for being a CPM supporter is too scared to return home.

Nitai Roy’s penalty was slightly different from what most other guerrilla targets got — death — possibly because they thought he could be a cash cow. His elder son Arindam is a professor of mathematics in California and the younger, Aninindam, is a software engineer based in Switzerland.

The man in his late 50s did not pay the money but fled home and rented a house in Midnapore town, 50km away. Even now he is wary of meeting people or being photographed.

Neighbours said Roy’s single-storey house less than 200 metres from the block office in Lalgarh town became a Maoist haven in his absence. “They broke open the lock on the main door and went in. They used to come armed after sunset. It used to be their meeting place. We knew everything, but no one dared talk about it,” said a man still scared to be identified.

The primary school at Netai village where Roy taught has been shut for months now. The village, about 4km from Lalgarh on the way to Ramgarh, used to be a Maoist core area.

Over the phone from Midnapore town, Roy spoke briefly of his “nightmarish experience”, how members of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities had dragged him to armed guerrillas camping at Khasjangal forest in Kantapahari.

He didn’t want to go into the details of what happened there. “Security forces have come to Lalgarh to stay only temporarily. How long will they protect me and my family?” the schoolteacher asked before hanging up.

A businessman who lives close to Roy’s Lalgarh house said: “The verdict was that he would be punished if he did not pay up.”

Roy, who had been living in the Lalgarh house for the past seven years, fled home with his wife Manju and daughter Anindita.

Anindita, who has done her MSc from Vidyasagar University in Midnapore town, used to be a secretary at Ramgarh panchayat. She has now taken a transfer to the Kharagpur subdivision.

“One morning, we saw the Roys pack up and leave in a hired van. The two-wheeler that Anindita rode to office was also taken away,” said a neighbour, adding: “We used to see the house with its doors open, but never dared enter.”

The Maoists took over the Roys’ house immediately after they left.

The collapsible gate and the wooden main door behind it are still open, days after the security forces moved in. A visit revealed the rooms had not been ransacked.

Two pillows were on the bed. A khol (a percussion instrument) was hanging from a hook in the drawing room. The television set was the only object missing, the plug of the cable connection hanging loose. The refrigerator was locked.

The rebels had probably taken the TV away because they needed access to news.