Patna: A married man was found hanging from a transformer pole under Noorsarai police station area of Nalanda district on Monday. His family alleged that he was murdered over an alleged extramarital affair and the body was later hanged to look like a suicide.According to police, the deceased, Dharmendra Paswan, was a resident of Bara Bigha village. His body has been sent to Bihar Sharif Model Hospital for postmortem. Married since 2014, Dharmendra is survived by his wife and two sons. He worked for a private company in Chennai, and had returned to the village on Aug 21.Dharmendra’s father, Arun Paswan, said that Dharmendra had been in a relationship with a woman from neighbouring Dharampur village for nearly two years. He met the woman on Sunday afternoon and later consumed alcohol with friends before visiting Dharampur again around 5pm.The family said villagers and relatives had reprimanded him over the relationship. On Monday morning, they were informed by the village head and a chowkidar that his body was hanging from a transformer pole. Arun alleged that the accused brought the body in a four-wheeler and hung it from the transformer pole to stage the death as a suicide. Dharmendra’s gamcha was found at the spot, he claimed.Lal Chand Manjhi, who was with Dharmendra on Sunday evening, also expressed suspicion of foul play. He said Dharmendra was with him until about 5pm and appeared normal before leaving. The family further claimed that Dharmendra’s feet were touching the ground and that the body had been tied to an iron angle with a cloth, circumstances they said cast doubt on the suicide theory.However, Noorsarai SHO Arvind Kumar said the preliminary investigation suggested death by hanging. “A complaint alleging murder has been received from the family. We are investigating the case from both murder and suicide angles. The autopsy report will be crucial in determining the cause of death. Until then, we have neither ruled out suicide nor dismissed the family’s allegation of murder,” the SHO said.
