A youth watching a cricket tournament at a ground here died after a National Volunteer Force member fired from two pistols and one bullet hit him on Tuesday afternoon.
Sheikh Todbir Ali, a 32-year-old farmer of Rananagar village, succumbed to the gunshot while he was being taken to Calcutta for advanced treatment. The alleged assailant, Biswajit Pradhan, has fled.
Eyewitnesses said there was a heated argument between Ali and Pradhan when the Jhargram Premier League was progressing. Pradhan pulled out two pistols and fired at Ali. While one bullet missed him, the second gunshot hit Ali’s temple even as he made a vain attempt to flee.
Ali was rushed to the Jhargram Superspecialty hospital and then to Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. Doctors referred him to a private hospital in Calcutta in the evening but he died on the way.
Ali’s younger brother Samim said Pradhan, a resident of neighbouring Bachhurdoba village, had also stabbed him after firing from the pistols.
Angry residents of Bachhurdoba ransacked and burned portions of Pradhan’s home and blocked the Jhargram-Midnapore highway for over two hours.
The sources said Pradhan’s brother worked with Bengal police. The investigators said prima facie, the two youths were known enemies.
However, only one of the two pistols was registered in Pradhan’s name.
“We are investigating the incident,” said additional superintendent of police (headquarters), Jhargram, Mir Sakir Ali. He said the police had launched a hunt for Pradhan.
Organisers of the cricket league, the Jhargram Pratibha Anweshan committee, said they were “disappointed” that such an incident had taken place “at an esteemed venue in the presence of civic volunteers”.
The tournament was inaugurated on November 30 by the district superintendent of police, Jhargram, Amitkumar Bharat Rathod.
“We want the perpetrator to be brought to justice,” said secretary of the organising committee Tamal Chakraborty.