In a pre-meditated killing two people — husband and wife — were done to death with a blunt object at village Sajwan under Haidernagar police station this Saturday morning about 78 km away from here.
The deceased have been identified as Ram Sunder Mehta, 51 and his wife Manorama Devi, 47.
Two of their sons Dharmender and Dhirender were severely injured and two daughters of the deceased Mehta family survived sans any injury.
The injured sons are undergoing treatment in the Sadar hospital Daltonganj.
Officer in-charge of Haidernagar police station Nageshwar Rajak confirming the incident said the twin murder was the fallout of a long drawn land dispute with one Ram Janam Mehta who happened to be own brother of the deceased Sunder Mehta but the two brothers were always baying for each other’s blood.
The police officer attributed the incident to land issue ruling out any witchcraft as factor behind this gruesome murder.
Rajak, however, conceded that Bhola Mehta, the father of the Mehta brothers was a practitioner of ‘tantra’ but he reiterated that this murder of two was not remotely connected to this witchcraft matter which the elder Mehta used to practice.
Police have arrested three persons in the incident including main accused Ram Janam Mehta and his two sons — Ranjit and Raj. One more accused was still on the run, the police said.
Meanwhile, police have recovered the blood soaked axe which was allegedly used to kill both the husband and wife.
The police officer disclosed that the accused killed those deceased while they were still sleeping on their bed.
Post mortem was done in Daltonganj Sadar Hospital here. Police admitted the murder was a cold blooded one and it was also a well planned one.