Man beheads hawker after row over vegetable prices

Kolkata: A vegetable hawker was beheaded by a male customer allegedly following an altercation over vegetable prices in Belpahari area in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district on Sunday.

Buddheswar Pal got agitated after a quarrel with the 30-year-old hawker and beheaded him after drawing a sharp weapon in full public view on Sunday afternoon, a senior police officer said. Pal soon ran away into a forest taking the severed head with him, he added.

Police recovered the hawker’s torso and launched a search to apprehend Pal.

“This is an extreme case of public rage where the hawker was murdered in broad daylight over prices of pumpkin, which the hawker was selling and Pal believed it was overpriced,” said the district superintendent of police.

Eyewitnesses said that the gruesome incident occurred in a flash and Pal ran away even before people could comprehend what had transpired.

“It was a normal argument between a buyer and seller over prices of vegetables. But none could imagine that someone could behead another over such trivial issue,” another hawker said.

The police may see it is an open-and-shut case, but sociologists suggest there may be deeper triggers to such violent reactions. “Imagine the anger that Pal must have accumulated over years and, for him, the price of the pumpkin was not a trivial issue. Unemployment is a major concern in the state and small things like prices of vegetables hurt people. Also, areas like West Midnapore have undergone years of political and bureaucratic neglect, which has resulted in such anger,” said Debashis Ghosh, a professor of sociology.