A 26-year-old man allegedly shot dead his 60-year-old mother after she refused to give him money to buy alcohol at Kantapukur-Nayabazar area of Bhatpara town on Sunday morning.

Neighbours heard a shot around 8am and found Salma Biwi slumped on the courtyard of her home in a pool of blood with her son Md Nisar standing by her side with a gun.

She was rushed to Bhatpara state general hospital, where a doctor declared her brought dead. Hospital sources said that the woman had a bullet injury on the forehead that killed her instantly.

Local residents nabbed her son Nisar when he was trying to escape and handed him over to police for allegedly for killing his mother in a drunken state.

Neighbours said that they had heard Nisar asking his mother for money to buy booze.

“The woman worked hard to earn a living for herself and her son. The youth never worked and was an alcoholic who often tortured his mother for money,” a neighbour said. “Even today (Sunday) we heard him demanding money from his mother using abusive language.… The woman was angry and refused to pay him anything further. Then we all of a sudden heard the gunshot.... It later appeared that the son fired at his mother and killed her for being refused the money,” the neighbour claimed.

Police arrested Nisar and began a murder case on the basis of preliminary investigation and the statements of neighbours. Police also recovered an improvised firearm suspected to be the murder weapon.

Produced before a court in Barrackpore, the youth was ordered five days in police custody.