Police in Alipurduar have identified the accused in Tuesday's murder who died after being beaten up by a mob as Biswadeep Das of Cooch Behar, and arrested his "friend" who allegedly instigated him.

On Tuesday evening, Biswadeep, who was from Patlakhawa of the neighbouring Cooch Behar district, entered Alipurduar's red light area in Samajpara under ward 13, took out a firearm and shot dead Kaushalya Mahato, 60.

When a group of people chased Biswadeep, he fired some more rounds. A bullet hit the leg of a 16-year-old boy.

The agitated crowd kept chasing Biswadeep and finally nabbed him to give him a beating from which he did not recover.

Although alive when rescued by the police, he died at the Alipurduar district hospital soon after.

The boy, who suffered a bullet wound in his right ankle, is hospitalised.

The police probe led to one Manoj Banerjee of ward 12 of the town. He was arrested.

“We suspect Manoj and Biswadeep were friends. Manoj had some problems with the woman (Kaushalya) and he sent Biswadeep to kill her,” said a police officer.

On Wednesday, MLA Suman Kanjilal visited the hospital to meet the injured boy and spoke with his parents and doctors.

“I met the boy. He is in shock as he was hit by a bullet while he was on his way to play badminton. Doctors said he is stable. He will have his surgery tomorrow (Thursday),” said the MLA.

Y. Raghuvamshi, the district police chief, said the bodies of the woman and Biswadeep have been handed over to their families. “Manoj Banerjee was earlier arrested in an arms case. We are gathering more details from him,” he said.

Theft of paint

Madarihat police in Alipurduar arrested three persons on Wednesday for allegedly stealing paint from the godown of a contractor.

The paint, sources said, was supposed to be used on houses under the state government's Cha Sundari scheme.

Those arrested are Krishna Das and Biswajit Roy of North Dinajpur district and Sunil Barman of Taleswarguri under Alipurduar's Samuktala police station area.

Police sources said as many as 15 buckets of paint were recovered from the trio.