Midnapore, Aug. 12: A trader of Goaltore in West Midnapore, whose house was looted four times in as many years, shot dead a dacoit during another raid last night.

Hours later, police realised that Harisadhan Nandi’s bullets, shot through a window in his steel-plated door on the second-floor, had claimed Sheikh Faiju, a criminal wanted for eight years.

Nandi, a potato trader, at Chunpura village, 180 km from Calcutta, said his residence-cum-office had been targeted every year since 2001.

“On the earlier occasions, I could not use my gun as the dacoits came in the evening and I was in my ground-floor office. This time they struck late at my first-floor residence and I had my gun handy,” said the 51-year-old.

Around 2.40 am, a gang of about 10 cut open iron grilles of the ground-floor office and took a mobile phone and Rs 4,000. Then they took the stairs to the first floor where they were blocked by a door fitted with steel sheets. The dacoits tried to break it open, but could not.

Nandi said: “They ordered me to open it and said if I didn’t, they will shoot me and my family. I became very angry and told them that I, too, had a gun and will not hesitate to fire. I asked them to get lost, but they did not listen. Then I loaded my single-barrel gun, slid open a steel plate and shot through it.”

The dacoits fled. Hearing the gunshots, the neighbours called the police.

They followed a blood trail to find Sheikh, 35, lying dead. District police chief Ajay Nanda said Nandi would not be arrested because he fired in self-defence.