Hundreds of dead fish were found floating in a pond in ward 3 of New Barrackpore on Wednesday, in a rerun of the incident at Alipore Bodyguards Line. The fish that were alive were struggling to breathe.

At New Barrackpore, too, the word was that someone had poisoned the water to kill the fish. One of the traders who had taken the pond on lease lodged a complaint with police.

“I had taken the pond on lease from the state cooperation department, along with three friends, six months ago. Today I learnt that the fish died and were floating in the pond. I can’t understand how something like this happened,” said Somnath Ghosh.

The trader had paid Rs 1.2 lakh for the lease. The partners took measures to prevent change in water quality of the pond, he added.

“There is a lot of money involved in the business. Someone might have used something to kill the fish. It is up to the cops to find out who did it. My business rivals could have been involved,” stated Ghosh.

Superintendent of North 24-Parganas police Praveen Kumar said: “We can’t say why the fish died. All that we can do is find out if something toxic was mixed in the water.”

At the Alipore Bodyguard Lines, the police on Wednesday spoke to the man who had taken lease of the pond in which hundreds of dead fish were found floating.

“It appears that he had used a mahua extract to flush out different varieties of tilapia before starting fresh cultivation of fish. It appears this is a common practice,” said joint commissioner Zulfikar Hassan.