Bhopal: Like in Kerala where murder of two Youth Congress workers kicked up a storm ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, abduction and killing of 6-year-old twin brothers at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh's Satna district is fast taking a political colour with the ruling Congress and Opposition BJP trading charges.
Ten days after they were kidnapped, the bodies of twin brothers Shreyansh and Priyansh Rawat, sons of herbal oil businessman Brijesh Rawat (a resident of Sitapur under Karbi police station on the Uttar Pradesh side of Chitrakoot) were found in Yamuna river in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district on February 23.
The children were kindergarten students of Sadguru Public Higher Secondary School at Chitrakoot.
The police have arrested a gang of six persons involved in the crime and the prime accused is allegedly linked to the BJP. Immediately after the arrests, it was the turn of politicians.
After they were arrested, photographs of vehicles used by the gang were circulated in social media. Of the four motorcycles, two had no number plates. An SUV seized from them carried the flag of BJP. Showing the photographs, the Congress blamed the saffron party for harbouring criminals.
According to Congress, the mastermind of the murders was identified as Padam Shukla, a native of Chitrakoot. He was photographed with several senior BJP leaders. Padam is the son of Sanskrit University employee Ramsharan Shukla.
“Padam Shukla was considered close to BJP leaders and the vehicle used by the abductors had a BJP flag,” alleged state Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza.
Padam’s younger brother is district convenor of Bajrang Dal, she added.
She alleged that during its 15-year rule in MP, a large number of criminals and goons have not only joined BJP, but were given protection by the senior party leaders of the party.
Even as the news of the kidnappings came out, former BJP chief minister of MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan had slammed the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. He tweeted, “when I was CM, I had declared that either the dacoits will live in the state or I.”
Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja retaliated by Tweeting some data.
“In the regime of the ex-CM, 23,000 children were kidnapped, the Congress government is trying to wash the taint”, tweeted Saluja.
Gruesome crime
The school bus was taking 28 children from the Janki Kund campus in Nayagaon police area of Chitrakoot to their homes on February 12 when two armed men, their faces covered with saffron stoles, stopped the vehicle just outside the school. The duo held conductor Ram Kumar, driver Rinku and two women attendants at gunpoint. They caught hold of the twins at 12:40pm and fled the spot on a motorcycle.
When the duo came to know that they were being chased by the school bus, they left the main road and took a narrow lane and escaped.
The gang called the Rawat family several times and demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore. Meantime, Madhya Pradesh government announced Rs 50,000 reward for information about the accused and began a combing operation in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Ten days passed with no trace of the kids. While the search was on, the gang used mobiles of passers-by to call the family and demanded the ransom.
The family sought help of friends, relatives and neighbours and collected Rs 20 lakh and handed it over to the kidnappers in small amounts. However, police claimed that they were not informed about it then.
On February 23 evening, Madhya Pradesh's Satna police received information from Baberu village in neighbouring Banda district of Uttar Pradesh that bodies of two children were lying on the banks of Yamuna.
By the time cops reached the spot, video and photographs of the twins' bodies in yellow T-shirts were posted on social media.
Six persons were immediately arrested for murder, abduction and conspiracy. Five of them were from UP and one from MP.
SP of Satna Santosh Singh Gaur told mediapersons that vehicles used for the crime were also seized.
Initial investigations suggested that the kidnappers strangulated the twin brothers on February 21, fearing that they won't be able to get more money from the family and the twins could reveal their identities.
Politics over murders
This was the first major crisis Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath had to face after taking over the reins of the state in November 2018.
Condemning the incident, the CM said, “I spoke to the victims’ father. The politics behind it will also be uncovered. Whose flag was there on the vehicle in which the gang was travelling, the police is exposing all that.”
Soon after the bodies were fished out of Yamuna, opposition BJP demanded the resignation of home minister Bala Bachchan for the government's failure to rescue the twins.
Leader of Opposition in the assembly Gopal Bhargav shot off a letter to Kamal Nath, seeking a judicial probe into the case, resignation of Home Minister Bala Bachchan and suspension of Satna SP.
Adding fuel to the political blame game, Chitrakoot town witnessed violent protests over the kids' murder, forcing district administration to clamp Section 144 of the CrPC. Hundreds of local people staged protests against the police’s inaction and Sadguru Seva Trust, which runs the school. Chitrakoot observed a bandh on Monday.
A silent rally was also held in the town which was attended by former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister of state for food processing industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. The two leaders also met the family members.
Chouhan said, “the government should decide whether there must be a CBI or judicial inquiry. Surprised that the state home minister was saying BJP was behind this, who stopped you from taking action? What did you do for 13 days? Criminals don't have a party or religion”.
Once a Congress stronghold, MP’s Vindhya region was in BJP's grip during the past 15 years. In 2014 general elections, the Congress was unable to wrest a single Lok Sabha seat from the BJP in Vindhya region’s four parliamentary seats of Sidhi, Rewa, Shahdol and Satna. The region comprises Rewa, Satna, Singrauli, Sidhi, Anuppur and Shahdol districts comprising 30 Assembly seats. This is the only region in the state where the BJP managed to save its face in the November 2018 Assembly elections. The Congress could win just six seats out of 30. In 2013 polls, the Congress party had won 12 seats.
The Satna Lok seat is currently held by BJP’s Ganesh Singh. In another development, the Sanskrit University has terminated services of Ramsharan Shukla, father of the mastermind Padam Shukla.