A 50-year-old man was killed for allegedly stealing a cauliflower from a neighbour’s agriculture farm in East Champaran district of Bihar.

The piece of vegetable would have cost just around Rs 10 at the place where he was murdered.

Raghunath Prasad of Bara Pakar village was returning from his farm, carrying a cauliflower. Suddenly two neighbours accused him of stealing it from their agriculture field and pounced on him.

They assaulted him with sticks, sharp-edged weapons and fists, and left when he fell on the ground. Other villagers witnessed the incident, informed his family, and rushed to the spot.

Prasad was taken to a nearby government hospital where the doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.

“We received a written complaint from the family of the deceased and registered an FIR with regard to the incident. The culprits are residents of the same village and are absconding. We are trying to nab them,” Pakridayal sub-divisional police officer Subodh Kumar told reporters.

The body was sent for post-mortem and later handed over to the kin for the last rites.