Stage actor bludgeoned to death in Lucknow

A stage artiste who performed in plays was bludgeoned to death in the state capital, police officials said Monday. The murder took place in the actor's house in Sarvodaynagar colony of the Ghazipur area late Sunday or early Monday.

The 43-year-old artiste Jagdish Verma, who lived with his wife and six-year-old son, was attacked by two assailants with a cricket bat.

Superintendent of Police (trans-Gomti) Habib-ul-Hasan told IANS that the deceased was from Barabanki district, and lived in a rented house in Lucknow. Pinki, the wife of the slain actor, told police that two people arrived to meet her husband late at night, after she and her son had retired to bed in a different room.

She said that when she woke up around 7 a.m., she found her husband lying in a pool of blood in the drawing room. A blood-smeared cricket bat lay near him.

Pinki said she recognised the assailants as they had visited the house earlier, but she did not know their names.

Police said all angles were being probed. An official said investigators would also look into the fact that the dead man's wife could identify the assailants, and that they left her unharmed.

The body has been sent for post-mortem examination.