Patna: Police recovered the mutilated bodies of two youths from a plot of land in Nawada village under the jurisdiction of Phulwari police station late on Sunday night.

The bodies have been identified as those of Ranjan Kumar, a resident of Jakkanpur, and Vikash Kumar a resident of Ambedkarnagar, which falls under the jurisdiction of Gardanibagh police station. The two used to work as house painters.

The bodies bore injury marks. The assailants, to conceal the identity of the deceased, had bludgeoned the faces of the duo with stones before pouring acid.

The police came to know about the identities of the youths from the identity cards kept in their pockets.

The bodies were recovered from a plot of land with a boundary wall. Police sources said some villagers, while passing through the road, noticed blood stains on the walls on Sunday night.

On peering across the wall, they spotted the bodies of the two youths lying on the ground. The villagers immediately apprised the police of their find. Police personnel from Phulwari police station rushed to the spot and took the bodies in custody and later sent those for post-mortem.

Station house officer of Phulwari police station Ajit Kumar said: "Prima facie, it appears that someone might have killed the youths somewhere else and later dumped the bodies in Nawada village."

The station house officer claimed that they are looking at various angles behind the murder. He added that it appeared that the assailants might have deep enmity with the youths, considering several injury marks on their bodies and that their faces were smashed with a stone.