UP shocker: Man beheads ice-cream seller, carries severed head home

A gruesome murder has sent shockwaves through Parsawal village in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district on March 29, after a 50-year-old man Shankar Yadav beheaded a 25-year-old ice-cream vendor following a heated verbal altercation.

The victim, identified as Bablu, was a resident of a village roughly 20 kilometres away from Parsawal. He regularly visited Parsawal to sell ice-cream and had done so on the day of the incident. A dispute broke out when a local resident Shankar Yadav allegedly objected to Bablu operating in the area. When the vendor refused to leave, the argument turned violent.

Horrific act

Yadav attacked Bablu with a sickle, slitting his throat and severing his head in public. Bystanders fled the scene in panic.

Rather than fleeing after the horrific crime, the accused Yadav picked up the severed head and walked back to his own house within the same village, where he reportedly attempted to burn it before continuing to cook.

Police find accused cooking

Officers deployed under Superintendent of Police Arpit Vijayvargiya cordoned off the area and entered Yadav's residence, where they found him cooking with the victim's severed head lying close by. Yadav was arrested on the spot and the murder weapon was seized.

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The SP told reporters that the accused appeared to have a disturbed and unstable state of mind, and had carried out the killing over what was essentially a trivial commercial dispute.

The victim's body, which had been partially burned, was sent for post-mortem examination.

Family bereft

Bablu was the eldest of three brothers and the primary earner for his family, supporting them through manual labour and vending work. He is survived by his wife and two young children, both said to be inconsolable.

Authorities are probing the full background to the dispute, and further legal proceedings against Shankar Yadav are underway.