Taekwondo player beheaded in UP over land dispute

Anurag Yadav was brushing his teeth outside his home when his neighbour Laalta Yadav came from behind and beheaded him allegedly with a single swing of a sword and fled the spot.

In Short

• Anurag Yadav was an intermediate student and a professional Taekwondo player
• He was beheaded by his neighbour with a single swing of sword
• Police take accused's father into custody, start interrogating him

A teen in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur district was beheaded by his neighbour with a sword, the police said on Wednesday. The boy, who was a taekwando player, was killed by the accused over a land dispute.

On Wednesday morning, when Anurag Yadav was brushing his teeth outside his home, his neighbour and accused Laalta Yadav came from behind and beheaded him allegedly with a single swing of a sword. Laalta Yadav is currently on the run.

Senior police officers and the District Magistrate (DM) reached the spot as soon as they received the information. The police have taken the accused's father, who was hiding in his house, into custody and have started interrogating him.

Anurag Yadav was an intermediate student at Raj College and was a professional Taekwondo player. He won a bronze medal in the Indo-Nepal International Taekwondo Competition in Chandauli and a silver medal in the Open National in Noida.

The incident caused panic among the family members of Anurag Yadav. Reacting to the incident, the village's Sarpanch said there is a land of the Gram Samaj (village society) nearby, over which a dispute had been going on for a long time.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Dr Ajay Pal Sharma said a land dispute had been going on between the two neighbouring families for over 40 years, due to which Anurag was murdered. A case has been registered against the accused and other legal recourse in the matter is being pursued, he added.

District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra said that a case over a land dispute between the two parties was pending in a court of law and assured that stern action would be taken against the guilty.

A magisterial inquiry will be conducted into the matter and Additional District Magistrate Finance and Revenue has been given charge of the investigation, DM Chandra added.

The ADM has been asked to submit a report to DM Dinesh Chandra in three days, on the basis of which action will be initiated.

With inputs from Aditya Prakash Bhardwaj