Murdered Satna twins' tutor hangs self in jail

BHOPAL: One of the key accused in the kidnapping and murder of the five-year-old Chitrakoot twins was founding hanging in Satna Central Jail on Tuesday afternoon. Police say accused Ramkesh Yadav, who was the kids’ tutor and had passed on information to the gang, killed himself.

Ramkesh, 26, went to a temple inside the jail premises and sat there for hours before hanging himself with his towel, say police.

Deputy jailer Raj Kishor Singh Gujjar said, “He was lodged in sector 8 of the jail. There is a small Hanuman temple in the compound where he hanged himself, probably between 11.15am and 11.20am. He sat there for some time and went to the rear of the temple. He fastened his towel to a pipe in the tin shed and hanged himself. The priest saw the body and informed other inmates, who informed us.” Ramkesh was taken to the jail hospital, where doctors advised he be taken to the Satna district hospital. There, he was declared dead on arrival.

“We have informed police and the chief judicial magistrate about the incident. The other five accused are also lodged in the jail but no scuffle or dispute has been reported so far,” Gujjar said.

Ramkesh used to teach twins Priyansh and Shreyansh Rawat, and allegedly gave information to the gang that led to their kidnap from their school bus on February 12. The boys were alive for nine days, two of which were spend in Chitrakoot itself, but a task force comprising 500 police personnel, including the STF of both MP and UP, failed to find them in time. The children were murdered and their bodies were found on the Yamuna riverbank near Baberu in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district on February 23.

Police arrested six suspects for the abduction and murder including the alleged mastermind Padam Shukla and Ramkesh Yadav. They and the others — Lucky Singh Tomar, Raju Dwivedi, Vikramjeet Singh and Pintu Yadav — have been in Satna jail ever since.