A 45-year-old man facing trial in a 2020 sacrilege case was hacked to death by an unidentified assailant who allegedly entered his house at Turan village near Mandi Gobindgarh in the early hours of Tuesday. The deceased, identified as Mewa Singh, son of Mahinder Singh, was allegedly attacked around 2 am while he was at his house with his family. According to a preliminary investigation, the assailant repeatedly struck him with a sharp-edged weapon before fleeing. The victim died on the spot.The motive behind the murder is yet to be established.Mewa Singh was booked by the Mandi Gobindgarh police in October 2020 in connection with the alleged desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at a gurdwara in Turan village. He had been released on bail in the case as the trial is still pending.Amloh DSP Vikramjit Singh Ghumman, SHO Sandeep Singh and other police officers rushed to the crime scene after receiving information. The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital, Mandi Gobindgarh, for the post-mortem examination, while forensic experts collected evidence from the house.The DSP said the victim had sustained multiple injuries inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon. He dismissed reports circulating on social media claiming that the victim had been beheaded. He said the police had constituted multiple teams to investigate the murder from all possible angles and were working to identify and arrest the assailant.Police personnel have been deployed in the village to maintain law and order.