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A man who won fame for growing the world's second-longest mustache was found beheaded, and police say he was killed to avenge a slaying committed during his younger days as a desert bandit.
Karna Ram Bheel was found with his head cut off, lying in a wooden cart pulled by a camel in the town of Jaisalmer, 400 miles southwest of New Delhi.
A suspect identified as the son of Elias Kayam, whom Bheel killed 13 years ago in a land dispute, was arrested in the Jan. 2 murder, said senior police officer B.K. Hamsukha. No first name was given for the younger Kayam, the United News of India reported Thursday.
Bheel, 59, was attacked by several assailants who beheaded him as he was returning home in the cart, said R.K. Saxena, police superintendent in Jaisalmer. No other arrests have been made.
Bheel was sentenced to life in prison for the 1974 slaying, but was freed on parole and was said to have been reformed when he was released.
He became world famous when the 1985 Guinness Book of World Records cited his 7-foot, 10-inch mustache as the second-longest in the world. Marsuriya Din, also an Indian, was listed in the 1985 record book as having the longest mustache at 8 1/2 feet.
Guinness says prison officials allowed Bheel to continue growing the mustache, which he started in 1949.
Even before becoming famous for his hair-growing feat, Bheel was notorious in Jaisalmer. UNI described him as a bandit who terrorized the wild desert area near the Pakistan frontier that is a haven for smugglers bringing goods into India.
After being reformed in prison, he became an expert at playing the nad, a stringed instrument of Rajasthan, and often performed at folk festivals.
The shy and reclusive Bheel said in an interview with The Associated Press at a festival last year that he unrolled the coils of his mustache once a week to comb it, although he declined to do so at the time.
Bheel is not mentioned in the 1988 Guinness book. Guinness says the current record-holder for the world's longest mustache is Birger Pellas of Malmo, Sweden. His measures 109 inches, or just a hair over 9 feet.
A spokesman for Guinness in London refused to comment on the news of Bheel's death.
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Died: The man with the longest moustache in the world Karna Ram Bheel, 60, of decapitation. It was in revenge, for the ex-dacoit's killing of a man 13 years ago. In prison for murder, Bheel had trimmed and twirled his moustache - grown since 1949.
At a record 7 ft, 10 inches, his whiskers entered the Guinness Book. Later armed with his moustache and musical talents - as a nad exponent - he turned desert artiste. For a reformed bandit, a mean end.
JAISALMER: Even as the country seethes at the brutal beheading of Lance Naik Hemraj, there have been similar cases in border areas in the past, many of them involving civilians. The most sensational of these is that of folk artist Karna Ram Bheel, whose headless body was found on January 2, 1998. Bheel, a Rajasthani folk musician, was renowned for his 6 ½ feet long moustache, a Guinness World Record. Details about the incident are sketchy - although accounts of that time and intelligence reports suggest that intruders from Pakistan beheaded Bheel and took away his head back to their country. The motive remains unclear. His family, though, is still hopeful that they would be able to, some day, recover his head from across the border. "It has been 15 years since my father was killed. But his final cremation is due as cremating a headless body is considered a sin as per our customs. We know the possibility of the severed head returning is slim, but we are still hopeful," says Karna's son Dhanna Ram, who, like his father, sports a moustache that is five feet long.
Karna's story is interesting. He was a dacoit who was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1982, he came out on parole and gave a folk performance for then President, Giani Zail Singh, who was on a visit to Jaisalmer. The President, the story goes, was so impressed with his performance, his long moustache and his personality that he recommended clemency for the former dacoit. Since then, Karna had devoted his life to playing the folk instrument Nad. He also became a minor celebrity in the region due to his moustache which attracted hordes of tourists.
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