Man shot by brother over land dispute in Bhagalpur district

PATNA: A man shot dead his elder brother and seriously wounded his sister-in-law and niece over property dispute at Kelabari under Ismailpur police station area of Naugacchia in Bhagalpur district on Friday evening.
SHO Mani Paswan said the deceased was identified as Upendra Mandal (55). Those injured included his wife Samhola Devi (50) and their daughter Reshmi Kumari (16). He said the accused, Prakash Mandal alias Fuddal Mandal (50) is evading arrest.Upendra and Prakash had another brother who had died long back.
“The three bothers had three bighas of agricultural land. However the death of one brother, Upendra used to say that he owned the share of deceased. Prakash opposed it saying the land should be equally divided between the two,” the SHO said. Both had also lodged cases against each other.
He said Upendra, Samhola and Reshmi were working in their field at around 6pm when Prakash reached there with his supporters. “He entered into an altercation and shot his elder brother in the head, killing him on the spot. When Samhola and Reshmi rushed to his rescue, Prakash shot his sister-in-law and hit his niece hard in her head with a blunt object,” he said, adding that three empty cartridges were recovered from the spot.
Paswan said Samhola and Reshmi were rushed to Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur where they were in critical condition. Police could not record their statements. He said Upendra’s body was handed over to family after postmortem on Saturday.