MP: 5 get consecutive life terms for killing 6-year-old twins

A court in Satna in Madhya Pradesh on Monday sentenced five men to two consecutive life terms for abducting and killing 6-year-old twin brothers for ransom.

Additional Sessions Judge Pradeep Kumar Kushwaha awarded life imprisonment to Padamkant Shukla, Raju Dwivedi, Alok Singh, Vikramjeet Singh and Apoorva Yadav, all in the 23-26 age group, and said they would undergo a second life term after completing the first one, Ramroop Patel, the counsel for the family of the deceased, told reporters. The court held Padamkant, Raju and Alok guilty of kidnapping and killing the two minor brothers, while it found Vikramjeet and Apoorva involved in the conspiracy, he said.

Patel said he would challenge the order in the MP High Court and seek death penalty for all the accused.

As per the prosecution, twins Shreyansh and Priyansh, sons of oil trader Brijesh Rawat, a resident of Karvi in Uttar Pradesh, were abducted at gunpoint from a school in Chitrakoot in MP on February 12, 2019.

The five had demanded Rs 1 crore as ransom and had proceeded to kill the siblings and dispose of their bodies in the Yamuna river in Banda in UP despite getting a sum of Rs 20 lakh as the first installment. The bodies were found on February 24 that year.

One accused, identified as Ramkesh Yadav, had committed suicide in jail.