A West Bengal Police constable shot dead three members of a family in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday over what is suspected to be the fall-out of an old love affair, police said.
The constable, Piyush Kanti Ghosh, who was missing from Saturday night, shot dead the three people - Manabendra Pal, his wife Sarbani and his sister - at Latbagan in Barrackpore, said Additional Superintendent of Police (Barrackpore) Dhrubojyoti Dey.
"The victims were a married couple and the husband's sister," Dey said.
"After the shoot-out Ghosh again went missing. We are on the look out for him. But so far he remains untraced," he said.
Asked about the cause of the shooting, he said: "A relationship angle cannot be ruled out. But we can be sure about the reason only after the investigation is completed."
However, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Presidency Range) Siddhi Nath Gupta told reporters that Piyush had a relationship with Sarbani before her marriage. "They had a relationship earlier. He had called her to the spot Sunday."
Sarbani was accompanied by her husband, his sister and some other relatives. Eyewitnesses said there was a verbal exchange between the two following which Piyush started firing randomly.
He fired eight rounds, killing two of the victims on the spot while the third succumbed to injuries in the hospital.