The son of an Indian murder victim has confessed to stabbing his father’s killer to death and chopping his body into 12 pieces, one for every year since his father was slain.

Alam Khan was aged 12 when he saw his father being murdered by a family friend in 2003. He had secretly planned his revenge ever since and finally seized his chance last week when he invited the killer over for a drink.

After getting Mohammad Rais drunk at his home in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Khan knifed him to death before using a hammer and hacksaw to dismember the body, he said.

He and an accomplice then packed the body parts into plastic bags which they threw into a river. When the bags washed up on the river’s banks, police were only able to identify Rais from a surgery scar on his torso.

Khan was arrested after witnesses recounted how Rais had last been seen visiting his home, and made a full confession.

“I played some music at full volume and cut his body into 12 pieces,” said Khan.

Khan had never told anyone about the identity of his father’s killer and had instead waited for 12 years to “realise his dream” of taking revenge. He was “happy it was now done”.

Police Superintendent Ram Suresh Yadav told Khan had confessed to his crime with an “utter lack of remorse”.

The murder weapons, including the hammer and hacksaw, had been recovered from Khan’s home in the district of Moradabad, Yadav added.