Abducted Banda twins found dead in Yamuna

Jhansi: In a horrific incident, the bodies of six-year-old twin brothers abducted 12 days ago from Chitrakoot were recovered from the Yamuna in Muskara area of Banda, chained with a stone on Saturday night.
SP Banda, Ganesh Saha told TOI that the doctors’ panel which conducted the autopsy confirmed throttling as the cause of death of the twin brothers Shivansh and Devansh. The detailed post-mortem examination report is still awaited, he added. The bodies seem to be four-days old, the SP added.

Police arrested six persons involved in the gruesome crime though UP STF and MP police could not save the children despite working in close coordination.

In a press conference on Sunday, DIG Rewa range, Avinash Sharma said that the abduction was carried out by six accused who have confessed to the crime. Police recovered Rs 16 lakh in cash, a hand gun, a Bolero jeep and four motorcycles used in the crime from them.

The accused include the kingpin Padam Shukla (22), a BTech, Rakesh Diwedi alias Raju of Banda, Alok Singh alias Lucky of Banda, Vikramjeet Singh of Bihar, Pinta Yadav of Hamirpur and Ramkesh Yadav who hails from Sitapur district but is settled in Karvi, Chitrakoot.

Ramkesh, a teacher, was the tutor of the two victims. He informed his nephew Pinta that the kids’ father Brijesh Rawat was very rich. Pinta further roped in the other four accused of which three are students of Gramoday University.

The plot was hatched by Padam, whose younger brother is a local Bajrang Dal leader. The jeep used in kidnapping carried a BJP flag while ‘Ram Rajjya’ was inscribed on the bike’s number plate instead of registration number.

The boys were constantly shifted to different places, mainly in UP, including Banda, Atarra and Allahabad. The kidnappers were even paid Rs 20 lakh as ransom on February 20, but the accused killed the boys next day in fear of being recognized. They, however, kept telling the parents of the children that they were with them and demanded more ransom.

The accused used to make ransom calls from different places by taking phones from random people. On one such occasion, a man got suspicious and clicked the photo of one accused on bike from behind and informed police. On the basis of details, police arrested Lucky and then nabbed the other accused.

Shivansh and Devansh had been kidnapped from their school bus on gun point in Nayagaon area of Chitrakoot in MP. The children hail from Ramgarh area of Karvi police station which falls in UP.

DIG Banda range, Anil Kumar Rai said, “All the accused are first time criminals.”