Mentally-challenged twins smothered to death by uncle in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A double murder sent shockwaves in the city when 12-year-old mentally challenged twins — a boy and a girl — were smothered to death by their maternal uncle at his residence in Satyanarayanapuram, Chaitanyapuri on Friday night. The accused reportedly claimed he killed them to provide succour to his sister and brother-in-law, who were in trauma because of their health condition. Two persons, including their uncle, were arrested.

Chaitanyapuri police said the victims —Vishnuvardhan Reddy and his twin Srujana Reddy — till recently were at an institute, which specialises in giving care and treatment to mentally-challenged persons. Since it was summer vacation, Vishnuvardhan and Srujana were taken to their residence in Miryalguda in Nalgonda district two months ago.

On Friday morning, the two children were picked up by their maternal uncle Mallikarjun Reddy, an unemployed chemist, from their Miryalguda residence and took them to his rented accommodation at Chaitanyapuri. He smothered them to death with a pillow at his first-floor portion. Later, he called his friend Vivek to bring his car to his residence.

House owner alerted neighbours & police

Around 11.30pm, Mallikarjun with the help of Vivek brought Srujana’s body down the stairs and put it in the boot of the car. When Vishnuvardhan’s body was being brought down, house owner Mahesh Reddy noticed it. “The house owner saw them shifting the body and questioned Mallikarjun, who did not give convincing answers, and found it suspicious. The house owner alerted other neighbours, who did not allow Mallikarjun to leave the place and they alerted police,” assistant commissioner of police (LB Nagar) K Pruthvidhar Rao said.

After committing the offence, Mallikarjun informed his sister and brother-in-law about the development. Mallikarjun confessed that he killed the twins as his sister Lakshmi had slipped into depression and brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy was in trauma because of the twins’ health condition, ACP added.

Earlier, Mallikarjun had planned to enact a drama that the two children drank Harpic, a toilet cleaner, mistaking it for a soft drink as they were mentally-challenged, but abandoned it for unknown reasons. Police have registered a case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and arrested Mallikarjun and Vivek. They were also analysing call data records of Mallikarjun and the twins’ parents to ascertain whether the latter were also part of the murder conspiracy.