Midnapore, Dec. 24: Durgapada Soren’s family would rather see him bleed to death than incur the wrath of Maoists whose fury they had tasted once.

Such is the terror of the rebels in Maoist hotbeds that when Durgapada was found bleeding but alive after being shot by the rebels, his family quietly took him home but did not go to a hospital.

Last night, about 7.30, around 10 armed Maoists showed up in Belpahari’s Shankhabhanga village. They went straight to the house of 59-year-old Durgapada, a farmer and supporter of Jharkhand Party (Aditya), activists of which have been attacked earlier too.

The Maoists called out Durgapada. When he came out, they told him to take them to Biswanath Murmu, a 60-year-old farmer in the same village and like Durgapada, a supporter of the JP (Aditya).

Once the Maoists got hold of Biswanath, they started abusing both. “You two are police spies, we will make you stand on trial,” a villa- ger quoted the Maoists as saying.

They dragged the duo half a kilometre from the hamlet to a clearing near the neighbouring Paparchakri village. There, they fired at Durgapada and Biswanath.

Shot in the head and chest, Biswanath died on the spot.

Durgapada, hit in the arm and shoulder, slumped to the ground. His attackers took him to be dead and left.

Durgapada lay on the ground till he was sure the Maoists were nowhere near-by. Then he dragged himself up and somehow hobbled back to his village.

On seeing him staggering home over half an hour after he left, Durgapada’s nephew Sagar rushed out and grabbed him. “I could not believe he was alive,” Sagar said. “Those taken away by the Maoists never return.”

Sagar said Durgapada, the head of the family, pleaded with them to be taken to a hospital. “But we were in a dilemma,” said the nephew, who lives in an adjacent house.

“First, the nearest hospital at Belpahari is 20km away and, second, if the Maoists have marked someone as their enemy, they will definitely kill him. So we did not have the courage to take my uncle to a hospital. He is a target, and the Maoists will defi- nitely get him. But we, as a family (Durgapada stayed with his wife and two sons), did not want to become targets by helping him stay alive. So we did not do anything,” Sagar said.

The whole night, Durgapada stayed untreated and bleeding at home.

This morning, on hearing of the Maoist attack, a team of policemen from Belpahari trudged to the village at 9 to take away the bodies. Finding only one, they started questioning villagers who told them Durgapada was alive and at home.

The police went to his house and found him lying on the ground, barely conscious.

They arranged for a vehicle from the police station and took him to the Belpahari Primary Health Centre.

“There has been such a lot of blood loss that he is critical and unable to speak,” a police officer said.

“What can we do?” Sagar said. “Our village is near the Jharkhand border and is part of the Maoist corridor. They are always roaming here. If we tried to save my uncle all of us would be killed.”

Murlidhar, the additional superintendent of police, operations, in West Midnapore, said: “Yes, it is true that this incident happened. The villagers here are terrified of the Maoists.”

The district medical officer of health, N.R. Sinha, said: “Durgapada is barely conscious as he has bled a lot. But the treatment is on and we are hopeful he will pull through.”

Purulia deaths

In Purulia, bodies of three Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) workers were found late last night by residents of Rangamati village in Bagmundi, about 370km west of Calcutta.

The police said they were victims of post-poll political rivalry in Jharkhand.

A fourth seriously injured JVM worker, who was found in Jharkhand near the bor- der, died on the way to a hospital in Jamshedpur a few hours later.

They had been attacked last night by a group who used firearms and sharp-edged weapons.

The four dead have been identified.

The bodies lying next to an SUV were those of Dhananjoy Kumar, 48, Kalipada Kumar, 50, and Ramprasad Mahato, 50. The JVM worker who died on the way to hospital was Chittaranjan Kumar, 49 years old.

Purulia superintendent of police Rajesh Yadav said the workers, based in Ichadi village in Jharkhand’s Saraikela district, had gone to the counting centre in Saraikela, where their candidate Arvind Singh, better known as Malkhan, had won yesterday.

The four were returning after celebrations when their car was intercepted by the assailants.