Blood was spilt in the state’s largest sporting arena early on Sunday when a security guard posted at Salt Lake stadium shot a colleague, killing him on the spot.

Police said Bimal Guha, 34, died instantly after Ram Pravesh Pandey, 22, pulled the trigger during a scuffle between the two.

Guha, a resident of Ranaghat, had reportedly abused Pandey, who hails from Sasaram district of Bihar, sparking trouble.

Interrogation of other security staff of the agency present at the stadium revealed that both had reported for duty at around 10 pm on Saturday. At around 11.45 pm, they were ready to take up their positions for the night, close to the scoreboard near Block K of the stadium.

Suddenly, an argument broke out between the two. Guha allegedly used abusive language against Pandey, who warned him to stop before deciding to take up the matter with the security supervisor at the stadium.

When Pandey was about to go to the supervisor and lodge a complaint, Guha tried to block his path, under the staircase of Block A in the stadium.

“A scuffle broke out between the two and then an enraged Pandey broke free, trained the double-barrel gun on Guha and pulled the trigger,” said K. Jairaman, additional superintendent of police (Salt Lake). “The bullet pierced Guha’s chest and he died on the spot,” Jairaman added.

Pandey was in a state of shock when he realised that the bullet from his gun had actually killed his colleague, officials later said. Almost an hour later, he surrendered himself.

Officials at Bidhannagar (South) police station were informed about the incident at 3.30 am. During interrogation, Pandey told police that the gun had gone off accidentally and he had no intention of shooting Guha. Pandey was produced in the sub-divisional judicial magistrate’s court at Barrackpore, where he was sentenced to jail custody.

The post-mortem has been completed and investigations are on, police officials said.

“It was an accident… It was a very unfortunate thing to happen,” said Bhola Nandy, administrative officer of Salt Lake stadium.