BAHRAICH ( UP) In a chilling and incomprehensible act of violence, a farmer in Bahraich not only brutally hacked two teenagers to death but also set his own family ablaze, killing six people, including himself, his wife, and two daughters.
The horrifying incident, which also claimed the lives of four cattle, unfolded on Wednesday in Nindoorpurwa, a hamlet under Ramgaon police station limits.
According to police and villagers, the sequence of events began with a dispute that could have easily been resolved peacefully. Instead of persuading his family to assist in agricultural work, 40-year-old Vijay Maurya chose the most terrifying and irreversible path, leaving an entire village in shock.
The Trigger: Garlic Plantation Refusal
Villagers recounted that Maurya had asked three neighboring children—13-year-old Sunny Verma (son of Om Prakash), Suraj Yadav (son of Lakhiram Yadav), and another boy, Kishan—to help with digging and planting garlic in his field.
After working for about an hour, the boys refused to continue, citing observance of the ongoing Navratri festival.
This refusal enraged Maurya. Consumed by anger, he attacked Sunny and Suraj with a sharp weapon (a gandasa), severing their fingers and slashing their throats in a frenzied assault. Kishan reportedly managed to escape.
Turning on His Own Family
What followed was even more horrifying. In a fit of rage, Maurya locked his wife, 32-year-old Dheeraj Kumari, and his two young daughters—12-year-old Riyanshi and 8-year-old Priyanshi—inside a room.
He then set the house on fire, ensuring that none could escape. All three perished in the flames along with Maurya himself.
When villagers noticed smoke billowing from the house and heard loud explosions caused by a bursting gas cylinder and a tractor tyre, they rushed to the spot.
But the house was locked from inside, and by the time fire tenders arrived and managed to control the blaze, the charred remains of Maurya and his family were found on a loft inside the house. In a separate room, the blood-soaked bodies of the two slain boys were discovered.
Four cattle tied inside the house also burned to death.
Suspicions of Ritual Killing
Adding to the mystery and horror, police found vermilion and blood near the bodies of the slain boys, leading locals to suspect that they might have been sacrificed before Maurya decided to end his entire family’s life. Police, however, have not confirmed this theory.
Superintendent of Police R.N. Singh said that preliminary investigation suggests that Maurya was not mentally stable. “It appears he intended to kill everyone together,” Singh noted, adding that the brutality of the act was beyond comprehension.
A Village in Shock
The entire village of Nindoorpurwa remains shaken, struggling to make sense of why a man, who could have easily persuaded his family members to assist him in fieldwork, instead chose to take such an extreme and horrifying step.
His actions not only ended six human lives but also devastated the community with the sheer savagery of the crime.
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