The gruesome murder of an old, well-off farmer couple in Singur’s Doloigacha — about 5 km from the Tata Motors small car project site — put the area on the boil once again this afternoon, even as a compromise formula was being worked out between the government and fasting Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.

The victims — Tinkari Dey, (56) and his wife Maya (50) — were found in a pool of blood on a ground floor room of their two-storied concrete house. Tinkari had a sharp cut on the back of his head. Both had electric wires tied around their neck, fitted to a plug-point. The bodies bore signs of strangulation and burn injuries from electric shock. “It is certainly not a case of suicide,” said Arun Gupta, IG Western Range, who visited the spot.

The family had willingly given about 190 decimal of land (close to 1.9 acres) for the Tata Motors car project and had received the first instalment of Rs 4.16 lakh. Dey had a small banana garden on the land he had sold.

The police could not say if valuables or cash were stolen. There was no sign of ransacking. The motive for the murder is yet to be ascertained. The door of the room where the couple were found, was locked from the inside. But the lock could have been put from outside to confuse the police, it was suspected.

On the first floor, a door leading to the terrace was found open. A police dog taken to the site picked a scent along a village path almost half a kilometer before losing track.

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