A 42-year-old man allegedly shot dead his two pet dogs — an alsatian and a spaniel — before gunning himself down at Joynagar in South 24-Parganas early on Thursday.

Subhankar Roy Chowdhury had used his father’s single-barrel gun to kill himself, police said. The Roy Chowdhurys of Joynagar used to renew the gun licence every year till 2017, when Subhankar’s father passed away.

When a team of officers from the local police station reached the two-storey house in Narayanitala, about 56km from the heart of Calcutta, they found Subhankar lying in a pool of blood with his two pets beside him.

A cop said Subhankar had made some money using the two pet dogs to breed puppies. Besides, he had bought an autorickshaw and engaged a driver to drive it.

The police said Subhankar had borrowed money from various sources to part fund the autorickshaw. The remaining amount was taken as loan from a bank. A few days ago, the bank’s recovery agents took possession of his three-wheeler after he repeatedly failed to pay EMIs.

The gun and two fired shells were lying beside the body. The third was inside the gun. The police said it was a 12-bore single-barrel gun with an almost 18-inch barrel.

In a possible reconstruction of the series of firings, the police said Subhankar possibly first gunned down one of the pets followed by another in a gap of around 12-13 seconds. After killing the two dogs, he used one of his toes to pull the trigger after holding the gun between his legs.

The bullet pierced through his jaws and a part of the skull.

The gun would be sent for ballistic test. Subhankar’s body and that of his two pets have been sent for autopsy.

Preliminary investigations revealed Subhankar didn’t have a steady source of income and used to primarily live on his father’s income. But for sometime now he was apparently depressed as he was to clear his loans and pay EMIs.

“Around 5am, Subhankar’s wife first heard a gun shot from the first floor. As she scampered down the stairs, she heard two more shots and then found her husband lying in a pool of blood,” said an officer of Joynagar police station.

“His two-and-a-half year old daughter also woke up after the second shot was fired and started crying.” The police have learnt that Subhankar used to splurge on his family’s savings till 2017. For the last few years, he has been struggling to make ends meet.

Just before the Lok Sabha elections, the police had asked for the gun as part of a drive to take custody of all licensed firearms. Subhankar had then said that his father had possibly kept the gun in the custody of the shop from where it was purchased several years ago.

“It appears that the gun that Subhankar used on Thursday morning was the same one that his father owned. We have checked and found that the licence was not renewed after 2017,” the officer said. “Possibly no one from the family thought it necessary to renew the licence.”