The family members of a youth brutally killed over a love affair cremated his body in front of the house of the girl whom he loved in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

The police have arrested the girl’s father on murder charges.

The incident occurred at Sonbarsa village under Kanti police station, around 85km north from the state capital on Saturday evening.

Saurabh Kumar, 22, a resident of Repura Rampur Shah village, working with a private firm in Odisha had come home to attend the marriage of his sister. On Friday night, he went out for a rendezvous with his beloved staying at the neighbouring Sonbarsa village. Both were seeing each other for the past four years.

However, the girl’s family members caught the youth. They brutally assaulted him with sticks and iron rods, cut off his genitals, and dumped him at a nearby government hospital. They also informed his family members about their act.

Saurabh succumbed to his injuries while being treated at the hospital. The police registered an FIR and took his body for post-mortem.

“The deceased youth’s family members, relatives and local villagers became angry and aggressive after we handed over his body to them. They blocked a nearby road for some time and then moved towards Sonbarsa village with a plan to cremate the body in front of the girl’s house,” Kanti police station official Mithilesh Kumar Singh told The Telegraph.

“We tried to stop the crowd but it did not listen to us. It built a funeral pyre outside the girl’s newly constructed house, and cremated Saurabh on it. It was done as an act of vengeance. We have arrested the girl’s father Sushant Kumar Pandey alias Dinesh Pandey under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” Mithilesh added.

The police have also arrested three persons from the side of the deceased youth on the charges of creating a law and order situation.

Saurabh’s father Manish Kumar is an auto-rickshaw driver and a part-time farmer.

“The girl’s family was against the relationship on the ground that our financial status did not match. They used to threaten to kill my son. They had attacked him last year and had tore off his nails, following which we sent him to Odisha to work.

“He had come to attend my daughter’s marriage on July 8 and had stayed back. He was our only son and we always used to tell him to stay away from love,” Manish told reporters.

Meanwhile, the police are camping at both the villages due to tension prevailing among the people.