Balurghat, Aug. 23: Septuagenarian Gour Sarkar was beaten to death by a group of youths at Barovita in the Harirampur police station area today when he tried to resist the felling of a few banana trees in his garden.

District superintendent of police Kalyan Kumar Mullick said the main accused, Toofan Sarkar, has gone missing.

It is learnt that electric lines pass through Gour Sarkar’s garden and there are frequent power-cuts in the locality due to friction of the wires with the leaves of the banana trees.

The residents had for long demanded that the trees be cut down in public interest, but a stubborn Gour Sarkar would not allow it.

This morning, Toofan and his friends raided the garden to fell the trees. When Gour Sarkar resisted, Toofan hit him with a brass torch.

The older man fell to the ground unconscious. At Harirampur hospital, he was declared “brought dead”.

Gour Sarkar’s son Asit said: “I was at home at that time, but could not imagine that events would take such a tragic turn. Those who had come to cut down the trees were my friends. I have no words to console my mother.”