With ten marriages behind him, this 52-year-old man was allegedly murdered by unidentified persons over property in the Bhojipura area here.

Jaganlal Yadav, a farmer who inherited ancestral property worth a few crores of rupees and was about to transfer its ownership to his adopted son, was found dead in a field. He had been strangled with a muffler.

The incident took place three days ago.

Bhojipura Station House Officer Manoj Kumar Tyagi said, "An FIR has been registered under the section of murder and the autopsy has confirmed that Jaganlal died of strangulation. There were visible injuries on his head which suggests that he was hit with a blunt object  also."

According to sources, his elder brother was said to be unhappy with the decision.

Jaganlal had first got married in the early 90s.

Five of his wives had reportedly died of illness and three 'left him for other men'. He is now survived by his two wives, aged 35 and 40, from West Bengal.

Police said that they were unaware of his marital life.

"We suspect that he was killed for his property which is near the main road and holds good market value. Local villagers told us that he was getting married again and again, but did not have any children. A young man lives with him who was born of his wife's first husband," the SHO said.

"During investigation, we also came to know that Jaganlal's father had divested him from his property since he got married multiple times and had transferred the ownership of entire 70 bigha land to Jaganlal's elder brother. However, his elder brother had transferred 14 bigha land back to Jaganlal on the Panchayat's order on a family dispute in 1999," the SHO said.

He further said that statements of all the relatives have been recorded and the police is using a surveillance report to verify the statements of suspects, including relatives.