A murder and three suspected murders have been reported from three districts of north Bengal during the past 24 hours.

Police have registered separate cases and initiated probes for all the incidents.

In Cooch Behar, 50-year-old Ruhidas Biswas, a resident of 538 Singimari village under Brahmattar-Chatra panchayat of Sitai police station, was gunned down at home on Monday night.

The police said Biswas, a farmer, was sitting in his room around 11.50pm, when some criminals entered and fired at him. A bullet hit him on the head and the criminals fled.

His family members rushed him to the subdivisional hospital in Dinhata where doctors pronounced him dead.

The police said his family members apparently have no inkling as to who might have killed him.

Two unnatural deaths were also reported from Malda district. Though kin suspect murder in both cases, the cops are waiting for post-mortem reports.

On Monday night, Hanumant a.k.a. Hanuman Rai, a railway employee, was found dead at his residential quarters in ward 22 of Englishbazar municipality.

Hailing from Bairampur in Gajipur district of Uttar Pradesh, the elderly Rai was set to retire on October 31 and leave for his native place by train on November 5. He was alone in the quarters and his family had left for Uttar Pradesh some days ago, said sources.

Narendranath Tiwari, former councillor of the ward, said neighbours found Rai dead in a pool of blood. The police took him to Malda Medical College and Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

“We suspect murder because of bleeding and injury marks,” Tiwari said.

In the other case, the body of a seven-year-old girl, missing since Saturday, was found near Mahananda river on Monday morning. Her family alleged murder as her body bore several injury marks.

The police are probing both cases, said Alok Rajoria, the district police chief.

In South Dinajpur, family members of a 32-year-old man alleged on Tuesday that his friends killed him by poisoning his drink.

The police sources said Dhruba Das of Chakbhabani area of Balurghat town, who worked in a private pathological lab, went out on Monday morning with a friend. He had some drinks with his friends and fell unconscious. His family members found him at the same friend’s house and took him home.

On Tuesday morning, Dhruba suddenly fell ill at home. Rushed to the district hospital in Balurghat, he was declared dead. The police have ordered a post-mortem. “We suspect that his friends poisoned his drink,” Narendranath, the victim’s father, said.

A Balurghat police officer said they would speak to Dhruba’s friends and were waiting for the post-mortem report.