No land dispute, father beheaded only over naming Narendra Modi chowk, claims Darbhanga man

The murder was due to me naming the chowk after Modi ji, there is absolutely no other reason, said the victim's son.

The son of the 70-year-old man who was recently beheaded in Darbhanga in Bihar has reiterated that the murder took place because of him naming a chowk after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dismissing reports of a property dispute being the reason for the crime.

Tej Narayan Yadav, the son of the deceased, Ramchandra Yadav, said, “The murder was due to me naming the chowk after Modi ji. There is absolutely no other reason.” He further alleged that the police was misleading the investigation and also pressuring his injured brother to say that it was a case of property dispute.

“I am not contemplating leaving this place,” he said. His wife Sushila also said that the police version was wrong. “The murder happened over the name of Modi chowk, there was no land dispute,” she said.

This comes even as the Bihar government, including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, has maintained that the cause of the crime was a land dispute while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai have claimed that it was because of the nomenclature of the chowk.

“Main jaan raha tha ki chunav mein zeher boya jaa raha hai ek khaas samuday, dal ki ore se. Aaj wahi chunav parinaam ke baad, Teju Yadav aur unke parivar ke logon ne bayan diya ki Modi Chowk jabse usne banaya hai tabse uske upar aafat ka pahad toot pada hai. (I was aware that a certain community, a party has been trying to inject poison. Today, post-election results, Teju Yadav and his family narrated how after constructing Modi Chowk they've been dealing with a mountain of problems),”  Giriraj Singh had said.

Reiterating similar views, Bihar BJP President Nityanand Rai said, “People are saying that this happened because of naming of Modi Chowk. They may had a prior land dispute. It's separate incident which happened earlier and SP, DSP are trying to cover it by linking the two. We'll complain about police officials to government.”

More than 40 people, armed with hockey stick and swords and riding bikes, attacked Ramchandra Yadav and his elder son Kamal Yadav. Ramchandra was later beheaded by a sword.