A retired soldier allegedly shot dead a Dalit man over a land dispute in a village on Monday, police said. Superintendent of Police (SP) Vineet Jaiswal said Arun Singh, a retired soldier residing in a village in the Umri Begamganj police station area, was involved in an ongoing dispute with Ramesh Bharti (46), a member of the Scheduled Caste community, over a land parcel.

On Monday evening, Singh allegedly cornered Ramesh near Pakri Dubey village under the Tarabganj police station limits and opened fire, killing him on the spot, Jaiswal said. "Upon receiving information about the incident, senior police officials, along with a forensic team, visited the spot, seized the body, and sent it to the district headquarters for postmortem," the SP said.