Delhi Police today claimed to have solved the killing of two siblings with the arrest of their 22-year-old uncle and his two friends who were eyeing Rs30 lakh the victims' family had got in a property deal.
The bodies of Mansij (7) and his sister Yashbi (5) were found near Pragati Maidan yesterday morning, four days after they were kidnapped from their school in east Delhi's Mandawli area.
The gang had tried to kidnap the children on a previous occasion on February 23 but could not do so as they did not go to school that day. They even allegedly planned it to be that perfect that they locked the door of the victims' house so that their mother could not go out to pick them up from school.
They allegedly strangled the children and smashed their heads with rocks on the same day they kidnapped them after they found that it was difficult to keep the siblings with them.
"We have arrested Amit Singh (22), the uncle, Shivam Gupta (19) and Pankaj Kashyap (19). The trio wanted to make fast money and knew that the family had got around Rs30 lakh in a property deal," Prabhakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said. Another accomplice Abhilash is on the run.
"Singh had scouted a deal for the sale of a flat in Mandawali and needed Rs six lakh immediately for clinching it. Kashyap on the other hand had lost heavily in gambling and had run debts amounting to Rs1.50 lakh and needed money to repay the debts. Gupta and Abhishek needed money to satisfy their consumerists instincts," Prabhakar said.
Kashyap, Gupta and Abhishek were to get a share of Rs two lakh each and the rest was to be kept by Singh, he claimed.
Ransom calls made from telephone booths near the victims' family gave police the first headway and suspicion fell on Singh, who was trying to raise money for a property deal.
After Singh "confessed" to the crime, he and his two accomplices were arrested, the DCP said.
After failing in their first attempt, the gang gave it a try three days later and succeeded. "The children were taken on foot from school by Singh and all the four youths met at Pandav Nagar around 2 pm and around this time the first ransom call was made allegedly by Kashyap," the DCP said.
Singh then took the children to Mehrauli but later moved to Millennium Park and asked his friends to meet him there, he said.
Realising that it was difficult to keep the children with them for long, they allegedly tried to strangle the girl at Millennium Park but did not succeed. They took the children to towards Pragati Maidan and allegedly killed them before dumping their bodies.
"The youths then came back to their houses and made ransom calls on February 27 and 28. They could not get the ransom as they were not able to make the parents speak to the kidnapped children. The kidnappers did not make any call on March 1," Prabhakar said.
