Cocks get ready for a fight in Binpur. Picture by Samir Mondal

Midnapore, Dec. 13: The crowd went cock-a-hoop and then, there was blood in the ring — not the fighter’s but the mentor’s.

An apparently tired cock struck back and killed his master yesterday for trying to push the victor of four recent fights into another bout in a West Midnapore village so he could make more money and crow about his success.

Little did Singrai Soren, 35, realise that his greed would force the rooster he had painstakingly fed and groomed for four months to turn on him.

“Singrai’s rooster was repeatedly trying to leave the arena. He kept bringing it back and, sitting on his haunches, pushed the bird towards its opponent, which attacked it. Then, Singrai’s cock suddenly jumped on him, cackling and flapping its wings all the while. The razor blades tied to its legs sliced Singrai’s jugular and he bled to death for lack of immediate treatment,” Bhagabat, one of Singrai’s friends who saw the bizarre event unfold, said today.

Dasai Soren, another of Singrai’s friends, had also come to watch the spectacle in Binpur’s Mohanpur, 24km from their Konedoba village. “It (Singrai’s rooster) was a good fighter. It had won four fights this season. After winning the first round, he was bent on making it fight another bird, that too within an hour of its first kill,” Dasai said.

Singrai — who could have had for dinner the cock vanquished by his rooster in the first round — wasn’t satisfied. The cock that dies in such bouts is usually the prize for the winner’s owner. In contests, winners get cash prizes ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,500, though no money was on offer in this particular case.

“After harvest, we go from village to village on bicycles for these fights. The fight at Mohanpur is quite famous, with around 200 roosters taking part,” Dasai said.

Dasai said it was possible that Singrai’s rooster, which he bought at a fair four months back, had been injured in the first round and didn’t want to take part in a fresh bout.

When Singrai slumped to the ground, many in the crowd didn’t immediately realise what had happened. “Singrai fell back on the ground. At first, we did not realise that he was hurt. Then we saw his shirt getting drenched in blood. By this time, his rooster had fled. We wrapped a towel around the wound on his neck to stop the bleeding and rushed him to the Binpur primary health centre, 8km away, but could not save him,” Bhagabat said.

Singrai’s body was taken to the Jhargram sub-divisional hospital for post-mortem. The hospital’s superintendent, Sudip Kandar, said preliminary examination suggested the death was the result of excessive bleeding.

“He died because of excessive blood loss. There was a cut on his neck from which a lot of blood had come out,” Kandar said.