PTI

Burdwan, Mar 31: It was a role reversal of sorts. Instances of snakebites and even deaths due to it are not uncommon in these parts of Bengal. But it was the turn of a poisonous cobra being bitten to death by a human.

A drunken man cut the snake into two pieces in Ekra village on Friday night, saying that "it should have a taste of its own medicine".

Subhas Banerjee, who works at a canteen in Jamuria in Burdwan, was returning home in Ekra in a drunken state on Friday night.

On the way, he heard some villagers talking about a cobra that had been found in the locality, police said.

Banerjee went to the spot where the snake had been found, hit it with a stick, bit it and cut it into two with his teeth. When shocked bystanders tried to desist him, he told them that a snake should know how it feels like to get bitten.

Soon after, though, he fell unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital. Banerjee has recovered now.