Dispute over pond’s possession leads to murder

A murder took place at Malda over the dominance of a pond. The incident took place at Binpara, where a man was stabbed by some other villagers at Sunday night. Police said, Mushlal Chawdhury, a local fisherman was the victim. He recently took a lease of a fishing pond from his neighbour Uttam Chowdhury and started farming there. 

On Sunday night, Mushlal was guarding the fishing pond when six assailants attacked him. He was hacked to his death and his wife Nirmala, who tried hard to save him, was also injured. The neighbours could not catch the assailants as they decamped from the spot by that time.

However, the neighbours informed the police that Netai Chowdhury, a local villager, who is also a fisherman, planned the murder. Netai was also the part of the gang – spotted by Mushlal’s wife. “Netai tried to take revenge as he was the lease holder of that fishing pond earlier.

 He lost the bid recently to Mushlal, as the deceased took the lease right of fishing from Uttam,” an investigating officer cleared adding the police are conducting raids to bring the accused behind bars as soon as possible. Police have learnt that there were six assailants including kingpin Netai. They have escaped from the area.

 “They used a matador to flee the area. We believe that they are staying in a hideout outside the district. We have contacted the police of the neighbouring districts as well,” the officer said.

However, police have temporarily detained Uttam, the owner of the fishing pond. ‘We found he was irresponsible during leasing out the pond. If he had made proper papers, then this incident could have been averted,” the officer further added. A police force is deployed in the area to keep peace during the Puja days.