Relatives of the two victims of kidnapping and murder on Saturday claimed that though the names of the suspects had been given to the police, they could not take timely action leading to the tragedy.
“We had strong suspicion on a young man who was probably passing on information about the movement of the police to the kidnappers. The mother of the children had also identified the voice of one of the kidnappers when he made a ransom call. We told the police all this, but they did not take any action. Had they acted in time, the children could have been saved,” said Prahlad Kumar, one of the victims’ relatives.
The police, as per sources, had shown restraint fearing for the lives of the children, but had planned to carry out a combing operation in the area on Thursday night. “Probably the kidnappers got a wind of our plan to carry out combing operations and dumped the bodies near Pragati Maidan,” said the source.
The kidnappers, who are suspected to be known to the family, had locked the mother inside her rented accommodation just before she was to leave for school on Tuesday to pick the victims up.
Though the victims did not belong to a well-to-do family, Mr. Kumar said that they had plans to buy their own house and some of their neighbours knew about it. “The mother of the children had recently told some of her neighbours that they were planning to buy their own house. Probably, the kidnappers got to know about it and hatched a plan to kidnap the children and seek ransom,” said Mr. Kumar, a resident of Sarita Vihar.
