2 boys strangled,missing tenant is suspect

“The incident occurred between 1 pm and 3 pm. We were informed about it around 4 pm. The suspect,Ashok Kumar,hails from Patna and was working in a steel factory. He is missing,and we have launched a hunt for him,” said DCP (Northwest) Meenu Chaudhary.

The boys were reportedly hit on the head with a sharp object before being strangled. The bodies were then hidden under a cot in the room where Kumar lived.

Phoolkumari (35),mother of the boys,said: “I had picked up Suraj and Gopal from school and gone out for some work. My sons said they would stay back at home because they wanted to watch cartoons on television. So I bolted the door and left.”

Upon returning,she saw Kumar emerging from the house. “I asked if he had seen the boys. But he said they had gone out to play. We searched for them but could not find them anywhere,” Phoolkumari said.

It was her 11-year-old daughter,Sangeeta,who noticed the feet of her brothers through a narrow gap in the window of Kumar’s room. “I informed my father,who rushed home and broke open the door. We found both Suraj and Gopal under Kumar’s cot,covered in blood,” she said.

Father Raja Ram Gupta,who works as a driver,said Kumar had been living in the house for the last seven years,and there were no problems between them.

“He stayed in a small room on the third floor,while we lived in another room on the same floor. Kumar’s father used to stay on the second floor of the house,” he said.

Kumar’s father has been picked up by police for questioning.