PATNA: The burnt bodies of two children have been recovered from a house in Patna's Janipur locality, a police officer said on Thursday.
The daylight incident has created a fear psychosis among residents, especially among working couples who leave their children at home alone while they go to work.
The deceased have been identified as Anjali (15) and Anshu (10). While their father, Lallan Gupta, is posted at the State Election Commission’s office, their mother, Shobha Devi, serves as a security guard at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna.
The incident took place at Nagwa village under Janipur police station limits in Patna district. It came to light when Shobha Devi returned home from duty. The main door was open, but the rooms were locked from the outside.
The incident was discovered around 2.30 pm, when the children, who were inside after returning from school, did not respond to their mother’s calls. Suspecting foul play, she immediately informed her husband, who rushed to the spot, only to find the children lying dead on their bed.
“The bodies bore burn injury marks. The neighbours didn’t hear any noise inside my house, which indicated that the kids were first murdered and then the house was set ablaze to make it appear that they died in a fire incident,” the hapless father said.
The family suspects that the accused might have attempted to do something wrong to the children after finding them alone in the house. “The incident took place between 12 and 1.30 pm. Two or three men were sighted near my house during the day,” Gupta told the police.
Agitated over the incident, residents staged a road blockade, burnt tyres, and disrupted vehicular traffic on the Patna–Janipur road. The protestors demanded immediate arrest of the culprits. Senior police officers rushed to the spot and pacified the agitators.
Phulwari Sharif DSP 2, Deepak Kumar, said police were investigating the matter from all angles. “Police recovered charred bodies of two kids. The bodies have been sent for postmortem. An FSL team visited the spot and collected samples,” he told the media.
He added that the reason behind the incident is yet to be ascertained.
RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav alleged that criminals patronised by the present dispensation were behind the incident. He commented on X, “Criminals are so emboldened that now no one is safe either at home, office, or hospital. CM is unconscious, criminals alert!”