A Trinamool Congress leader used his past paramilitary training to rescue two children from their father, who had killed their mother and held the kids hostage in a tea garden in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday.

The incident took place at 8am at the Pahariya Line of Raipur tea estate under the jurisdiction of Jalpaiguri Kotwali police station. The garden is 10km from Jalpaiguri town.

Ajay Munda, 30, a tea garden worker, allegedly murdered his wife, Kusum Munda, 25, inside their home with a sharp weapon in front of their daughter and son, who are both minors.

“He then locked himself inside the house with the children and threatened to harm them if anyone tried to enter,” said a source.

Police and residents arrived but refrained from immediate action because of the threat posed to the children’s lives.

“Efforts to negotiate with Ajay failed for several hours,” the source added.

Around noon, Krishna Das, the district president of the Trinamool Congress SC-ST cell, who had previously served in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) as a constable from 1996 to 2000, arrived at the scene.

Sources said the police made several attempts to intervene, but every time, Ajay would shout that he would kill the children. “Fearing for the children’s lives, the police decided to wait and avoid any immediate forceful entry,” the source said.

Under such circumstances, Das’s training came in handy.

The sources said Das first assessed the situation and then observed the way the lock was locked from inside.

“He then used a piece of a broken cot to open the latch. As he entered the house, he shouted loudly to distract Ajay. Then he quickly grabbed Ajay’s hand and took away the weapon before he could react,” the source said.

Das said he believed Ajay was not in a stable mental state after killing his wife and that he was using the children as a means to block intervention. “I used my training to assess the situation and managed to get in and take control before anything worse happened,” he said.

The police have sent the body of Kusum Munda for autopsy. “The children have been placed under protective care,” said the source.

Khandbahale Umesh Ganpat, the district superintendent of police, said Ajay was arrested and was being questioned to determine the motive behind the killing. “The two children, a boy and a girl, were physically unharmed and were being looked after. Further investigation is going on,” he said.

A resident said: “The couple often had domestic disputes, but no one had expected the situation to escalate to such an extent.”