Kasba trader attacked, mom shot at

KOLKATA: A businessman was attacked and his 59-year-old mother was shot at in Kasba early on Sunday. The bullet missed the elderly as her pet dog jumped on one of the attackers.

The suspects are still at large. The victims alleged the suspects wanted to burn them alive. An FIR was lodged at Kasba police station on Sunday.

Surajit Roy (37) has a small business apart from a cab which he rents out. Around 12.30am on Sunday, Roy and his family were sleeping at their Rajdanga Main Road residence when loud noise of bikes woke him up. Roy did not find anything worrying till he heard his pet dog barking. Suddenly, he heard footsteps on the iron staircase that leads to their rooms.

“The dog continued to bark that alerted me. My wife also woke up by then, but the kids were in deep sleep. Soon, we could smell petrol and realised that someone was trying set our house afire,” Roy said.

“When my mother, who was in another room, tried to raise an alarm, one of the goons shot at her,” said Roy.

His mother Shila, who sleeps in another room, said when she started to shout for help, one of the miscreants opened fire at her.“When they pointed the gun at me, the dog jumped at one of them. The bullet missed me by a whisker and hit the flower pot behind me,” she said. The miscreants then fled leaving Roy “clueless about the motive”.

According to him,

Munna Pandey

, a local criminal, had fallen out with Roy’s brother during Diwali last year. “They wanted to hook a power connection for a local puja pandal from our meter box. My brother objected to that,” he said.

Roy said he had already informed

Lalbazar

and the local police about the intention of Pandey. The main accused has been absconding with his aide

Bidhan Sarkar

. Police have started a probe and slapped charges of culpable homicide and arms act against the FIRnamed persons.