A 24-year-old recovery agent was found dead after he was allegedly murdered by unidentified persons in Balapur early on Sunday, with police suspecting a dispute over territorial rivalry in recovery operations.

The deceased was identified as Adit Pandey, a native of Lucknow, who was working as a recovery agent with a bank in Hyderabad.

According to preliminary investigation, police suspect the role of a man identified as Munna, who is also engaged in vehicle recovery and seizure work. Both the deceased and the suspect were involved in recovery operations, including seizure of vehicles for loan defaults, police said.

Police said Munna had allegedly warned Adit not to carry out recovery work in areas under his jurisdiction. Investigators suspect that Munna took Adit away on his bike and bludgeoned him to death sometime between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m..

The victim’s family also expressed suspicion over Munna’s involvement. Balapur police have registered a murder case and launched a search operation to trace the accused.

The body was shifted for postmortem examination, and further investigation is underway to establish the exact sequence of events leading to the murder.