The sensational kidnapping of six-year-old twin brothers from a crowded school bus just outside the Sadguru Public Higher Secondary School at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district on February 12 came to a tragic end on Saturday night with the recovery of their bodies from the Yamuna in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh.
The police have arrested six persons in connection with the murder, including the brother of a regional convener of the Bajrang Dal.
The six accused have been arrested on charges of abduction, killing and conspiracy. Five of them are from U.P. and one from M.P., Satna Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh Gaur told media persons.
Those arrested are Lucky Tomar, Pintu Ramswaroop Yadav, Ramkesh Yadav, Rohit Dwivedi and Raju Dwivedi, all belonging to U.P., and Padma Shukla from M.P.
Mr. Gaur said some vehicles, including motorcycles and an SUV, have been seized.
According to photographs being circulated in the social media, of the four motorcycles, two do not have number plates and have colours of a political party painted on them. The seized SUV carries the flag of a political party.
According to the police, Padma Shukla’s younger brother Vishnukant alias Chhotu is a regional convener of the Bajrang Dal. However, so far, the police have not found any link between Chhotu and the abductors.
Protests in Chitrakoot
After the bodies of the twin brothers were found, violent protests erupted in Chitrakoot town forcing the district administration to clamp Section 144. A large number of locals held a protest against what they called “police’s inaction” and the Sadguru Seva Trust which runs the school where the children studied.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has condemned the incident. Speaking at the State hangar before leaving for Umariya district, Mr. Nath said: “The police will expose those behind all this... whose flag was there on the vehicle in which they were travelling.”
The children, both in kindergarten and sons of oil merchant Brijesh Rawat, were kidnapped at gunpoint by two masked persons. The kidnappers had later demanded ransom from the children’s father, Chitrakoot’s Nayagaon police station in-charge K.P. Tripathi said. The M.P. police had announced a reward of ₹50,000 for information on the twins.
(With PTI inputs)