Police on Saturday arrested a van driver, Mohan alias Mohan Raj alias Mohanasundaram, in connection with the abduction and murder of a girl and her brother.
Muskan (10) and Ritish (7) studying in a private school on Sathyamangalam Road were kidnapped by Mohan, who was once their private van driver, when they left their house to go to school on Friday morning. Only when the regular van driver turned up at the house and called up their mother stating that he had been waiting for the children, did it come to light that the children were not in school. Their parents — Ranjith, a textile merchant and his wife Sangeetha — preferred a complaint with the police.
City Police Commissioner C. Sylendra Babu constituted special police teams led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Head Quarters) E.S. Uma. The accused in his late twenties is said to have made the children believe that they were being taken on a picnic. It is learnt that Mohan had borrowed the call taxi of Sekar in the morning and had not returned it.
Using cyber crime sleuths, the police traced Mohan's whereabouts and reached the Thirumurthy hills area. Police rushed to the area when a farmer noticed a school bag floating in a canal. Mohan was spotted in a farm.
Following an interrogation by police, he confessed that he had abducted the children. He also confessed to having pushed the children into the canal when they were washing their hands after taking lunch they had brought. The accused had planned to demand Rs.10 lakh from the parents as ransom. The girl's body was recovered near Pongalur in Tirupur district late on Friday night. A search was on to recover the boy's body. The accused was remanded to custody.
