LUCKNOW: A 30-year-old Dalit man was brutally beheaded with a sword at a market square in Sant Kabir Nagar, in eastern UP, allegedly to avenge a slap five days earlier.
The victim had confronted and slapped the accused after he allegedly molested his niece during a wedding ceremony.
According to the police, the murder was the result of that personal rivalry.
Meanwhile, enraged villagers started protesting by blocking the road at the Babhani intersection. During this, the shop and house of the accused Nasir were set on fire.
The incident took place late on Thursday night in the Bakhira police station area, around 28 km from the district headquarters.
Victim Anand, a resident of Kolki Chamarsan village in the Bakhira police station area, was returning home when the accused, Nasir Ali (18), a resident of a nearby village, along with four accomplices, allegedly surrounded him and attacked him with a sword.
The blow to his throat was so severe that Anand, who used to work as a tile layer in Chennai, died on the spot.
Eyewitness and the deceased's cousin, Rohit, stated that Anand had come to Babhani Chowk around 7 PM to deliver a machine. After delivering the machine, he bought some items and stayed at the chowk for a long time. Then, late at night, he was returning home.
Police from three police stations reached the spot after receiving information. SP Sandeep Kumar Meena and CO also arrived with force. They pacified and calmed down the angry villagers.
Late at 11 PM, ADG Ashok Mutha Jain, DIG Sanjeev Tyagi, and DM Alok Kumar also reached the spot. Police have deployed several teams in search of the main accused, Nasir Ali and his associates. It is being told that there is a distance of about two kilometres between Nasir's and Anand's houses.
When the police started taking the body for a post-mortem, angry family members tried to stop the ambulance and scuffled with the police.
Meanwhile, on Friday, a large number of women came out on the streets carrying sticks in protest and demanded the encounter of the accused.
"My husband was brutally murdered. We want life for a life, nothing less than that," said the wife of the deceased.
Currently, based on the complaint of the deceased's father, the police have registered a case against four accused, including three named individuals.
The accused include Nasir and Nirhu, residents of Kusumha village in Bakheera police station area, Jaigam, a resident of Jivdhara village, and one other unknown person.
Anand got married around seven years ago. Besides his wife, he has two daughters. The elder daughter, Ananya, is three years old, while the younger daughter, Aradhya, is six months old. Anand was the youngest of three brothers.
According to family members, he had come home from Chennai on May 6 and was preparing to return a few days later.
ADG Ashok Mutha Jain said that the victim had stopped in the market to buy goods. During that time, he was murdered by slitting his throat.
In the initial investigation, a case of dispute at a wedding ceremony had come to light. Several police teams were continuously conducting raids to arrest the accused.
The police tried to pacify the villagers, but they did not agree. Women started banging sticks in front of the police. They started pushing and shoving. The police used force to snatch the sticks from the women.
Seeing the anger of the villagers, the police swiftly took bulldozer action on the main accused Nasir's barber shop and his associates' chicken shop on Friday afternoon. The police demolished all three temporary shops.