Ramiya Chaudhary, 10, and Kriti, eight, were hacked to death by their father Khushi, 35, and stepmother Bindu, 20, at around 11:30 in the night, according to Inspector at the Area Police Office Kolvi Roshan Khadka. [break]Khushi had married Bindu merely four months ago after the children´s mother Sumitra Devi passed away in April.
Fortunately, Arvind, 15, avoided the gruesome tragedy as he had slept at one of the neighbor´s house. “She (stepmother) had asked me to sleep at home yesterday. I was saved as I didn´t sleep at home,” said the 10th grader.
Grandfather of the murdered siblings, who witnessed the gory incident, said the whole family had gone to sleep following the Chhath festival. “He (Khushi) had even bought new clothes for the daughters,” grandfather Sohan said with misty eyes. “And then this gory thing happened.” Sohan had slept on the porch while his son and daughter-in-law slept inside the house along with the granddaughters.
“I saw my son mercilessly hitting his daughters, who were asleep, with an axe, when I peeped through a hole after hearing strange noise inside,” Sohan said. “First he smashed the elder daughter´s head and then struck at the younger. The sleeping children couldn´t even scream,” he described the chilling incident.
“I urged them to open the door but they didn´t. I even tried to break the door with all my force to save my grandchildren but couldn´t,” the 60-year-old rued. Sohan, however, managed to grab his son, who was trying to abscond following the incident, and handed him over to the police.
Arvind said there were regular quarrels in house since the death of his mother. “Our mother used to love us. But stepmother always scolded us. She would even beat my sisters,” Arvind said. He revealed that the stepmother had made an issue of new clothes that his father had bought for his sisters during the Chhath festival.
Khushi was taken under control by the police immediately after the incident while absconding Bindu was nabbed by Rautahat Police in Lakshmanwa. Inspector Khadka said Khushi is acting abnormally in the police custody.
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