A youth was found brutally murdered in Sikaria Khurd village under Gadwar police station of Ballia on Sunday morning.

The youth’s throat was slit and the body was thrown into a well near his house.

As soon as the body was found in the well, local police rushed to the spot and shifted the body for autopsy. A case was also registered against unknown persons and further investigations are on.

Reports said that Bablu Paswan (35) of Sikaria Khurd, was doing a private job in Deoria. He visited his village in Ballia after taking leave for the Dussehra fair. He went out of home on Friday night but did not return. The family thought he might have gone somewhere. When he did not return till Saturday afternoon, the family started searching among friends and relatives but he could not be found. On Sunday morning, the deceased’s son Gautam started screaming after seeing his father’s dead body lying in the well.

As soon as the information was received, Inspector-in-charge Sanjay Shukla reached the spot with a police force and got the body taken out from the well. Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police S Anand, ASP DP Tiwari and CO (City) SN Vaibhav Pandey also reached the spot and started investigating the incident.

The police were shocked to see that the neck of the deceased was slit with some sharp-edged weapon and the body was thrown in the well after the murder.

The family members said Bablu Paswan was murdered by someone and later the body was dumped in the well to conceal crime.

Further investigations are on.

Meanwhile, in a separate killing, a youth was murdered over a dispute during dancing in a birthday party in Phulbhead locality of Lakhimpur Kheri.

The killing took place late on Saturday night and the body was recovered from a nearby field on Sunday morning.

According to reports, the birthday of the granddaughter of Ram Vilas, a resident of Belihan village under Phulbehad police station of Kheri was celebrated on Saturday night. The family organized a dance programme in which some female dancers were also hired. Reports said that the dispute took place when people from neighboring villages also came to watch the dance.

According to the villagers, at around 10:30 pm, some drunk youth started forcibly climbing the stage. Seeing this, Ram Vilas’ nephew Karan (18), son of Ved Prakash, protested. A dispute started between Karan and the drunken youth. The people present there intervened and pacified both.

It is reported that after some time Karan suddenly went missing from the programme and the family started searching for him. When he was not found, the family members reached Sundarwal police post in the night and informed the cops about the dispute and expressed apprehension of something untoward. It is alleged that the police did not take the matter seriously.

On Sunday morning, Karan’s body was found lying in a sugarcane field on the corner of the village. He was brutally stabbed several times. When the murder came to light, the police reached the spot and shifted the body for post-mortem.

SP Ganesh Prasad Saha also inspected the spot.  On the complaint of the father of the deceased, the police registered a murder case against eight named and three unidentified persons, including Bhavani, Hansraj, Jaipal, Sandeep, Anup, Sheru, Junnu of Gopalapur and Pipra Marora villages.

Inspector in-charge Raju Rao said that raids were being conducted to arrest the accused who were absconding.