Badaun murders: 2 children hacked to death in UP, accused killed in police encounter

In a disturbing incident, two children were hacked to death on Tuesday evening in Uttar Pradesh Badaun’s Baba Colony by a person, who was later killed in an encounter with the police, news agency ANI reported.

The incident took place when the two children, aged around 11 and 6 years, were playing on the terrace of a building. The accused, identified as Sajid, came, and waited for some time before killing them, ANI quoted Bareilly inspector-general of police Rakesh Kumar as saying. The Indian Express identified the victims as Ayush and Honey, who were both brothers.

“The police reached the spot and the accused tried to escape. We chased the accused. He fired at the police and was killed in retaliatory fire. The accused died on the spot. The police are investigating the case,” Rakesh Kumar said.

“The accused Sajid entered the house yesterday at around 7:30pm and went to the terrace where the children were playing. He attacked the two children and murdered them. He then came down where the crowd tried to hold him back but he escaped…Police teams swung into action when they got to know that the accused had escaped…The accused fired at the police and was killed in retaliatory fire,” Badaun SSP Alok Priyadarshi told ANI.

He said the murder weapon and the revolver have been recovered. In the FIR, the family of the deceased children has also named the brother, Javed of the accused. Teams are working to find him and he will be arrested soon,” the SSP said.

Who is the accused and why did he kill the children?

IG Rakesh Kumar said the accused is aged between 25 and 30 years. “We will be disclosing their details after further investigation,” he said.

When asked about the motive behind the murders, Badaun district magistrate (DM) Manoj Kumar said, “The reason for the murder is not clear yet. It will be found out during the investigation.”

Reports, however, claimed that there was some dispute over money which led to the incident. The SSP, citing the victim’s family, said the accused had demanded ₹5,000 from the father of the deceased children. He said the police were now investigating what led to the murder.

Tension in Badaun

Heavy police security was deployed at the Baba Colony located near the Mandi Samiti outpost as locals protested against the ghastly double murder.

NDTV reported that angry locals set a shop on fire after the incident in Baba Colony. The situation is now under control, the police said.

District magistrate Manoj Kumar said some people got agitated after the incident and they have been asked to maintain peace.

“We received information this evening that at Baba colony near the Mandi Samiti police outpost, a man entered a house and murdered two young children. After the incident, some people got agitated. The people have been asked to maintain peace,” Manoj Kumar told ANI. He added that the bodies have been sent for postmortem. “We have assured them that an investigation will be carried out,” the DM said.