A 19-year-old resident of Ramdaspur village in Hoshiarpur district allegedly killed his 22-year-old brother with a sharp-edged weapon at their house on Tuesday night.

Manjot Singh was sleeping in his room when his brother, Manpreet Singh, attacked him. After committing the crime, Manpreet rang up the village sarpanch telling him that unidentified persons had barged into their house.

When the sarpanch and the police reached the spot, Manjot was lying dead and Manpreet was missing.

Tanda deputy superintendent of police Harjit Singh Randhawa said that a murder case had been registered against Manpreet as prima facie, he appeared to be the culprit.

He said that the accused was a drug addict and used to fight with his brother over money. The brothers lived with their grandmother as their parents had died several years ago, the DSP said.

The grandmother, who was sleeping in another room, told the police that she had neither heard Manjot’s screams nor seen anyone moving in the house but the police are verifying her statement.

The accused was jobless and often remained away for days. Villagers said that he had returned to Ramdaspur on Tuesday itself after around two weeks.

Manjot was a farmer and the breadwinner of the family.