In a gruesome double murder incident, two children were hacked to death allegedly by Sajid, a local barber, at Baba Colony in Uttar Pradesh‘s Badaun on Tuesday evening, police said. The victims have reportedly been identified as Ayush (13) and Honey (6).

About two hours after the Badaun murders, Sajid was killed in an alleged police encounter. UP director general of police (DGP) Prashant Kumar said the accused was shot dead when he opened fire on the police team pursuing him, The Indian Express reported.

Who was Sajid?

• The accused has been identified as Sajid, 22.
• Sajid’s shop is located near the boys’ residence in Baba Colony, Civil Line police station area, in Badaun, the newspaper reported.
• The victims’ father, Vinod Singh, is a contractor, while their mother, Sangeeta, has a beauty parlour.
• Badaun SSP Alok Priyadarshi said the accused Sajid entered the house around 7:30pm.
• At the time, Vinod Singh had reportedly gone to the market, while his wife was at her beauty parlour. The boys were at home with their paternal grandmother, police said.
• The Indian Express, citing the police, said when Vinod Singh’s mother went to make tea, Sajid went to the third floor of the house, where the two boys were playing with their brother, Piyush (8).
• He attacked the boys with a sharp-edged weapon, slitting the throats of the two victims, the report added.
• Piyush, who sustained minor injuries, managed to escape and alerted the rest of the family.
• Alok Priyadarshi said the Police teams swung into action when they got to know that the accused had escaped. The accused fired at the police and was killed in retaliatory fire.
• On the complaint of the father of the deceased, the police registered an FIR against Sajid and his brother Javed.

What FIR claimed

The FIR states, “The accused Sajid told my wife that he wanted money as his wife was about to deliver a child. When she went inside to take money, he said that he was feeling unwell and wanted to go for a walk on the terrace and took my sons (deceased) with him. He also called his brother Javed to the terrace. When my wife returned, she saw Sajid and Javed with a knife in their hands. Sajid also tried to attack my surviving son and he sustained injuries. Both were running away and Sajid told my wife that today he had completed his work.”

Why did Sajid kill the children?

The father of the deceased has said that there were two people involved in the murder and they are still unaware as to why this incident happened.

“I was unaware of the encounter (of the accused). He (the accused) was trying to run away but the police caught him. There were two people. I live outside. We had no interaction with them before. We are unaware as to why this happened,” Vinod Singh told ANI.

According to locals, the accused often had disputes with his neighbour Vinod Kumar’s family, India Today reported.

The SSP, citing the victim’s family, said the accused had demanded ₹5,000 from the father of the deceased children. He said the police were now investigating what led to the murder.

Heavy security deployment

Meanwhile, heavy police security was deployed at the Baba Colony located near the Mandi Samiti outpost as locals protested against the ghastly double murder.

Badaun district magistrate (DM) Manoj Kumar said some people got agitated after the incident and they were asked to maintain peace.