Badaun double murder: Second accused Javed surrenders before police in Bareilly

Two children were hacked to death on April 19 in Uttar Pradesh Badaun's by a person, who was later killed in an encounter with the police.

The second accused in the Budaun double murder case has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Javed, the second accused in the Budaun double murder case.(ANI)

The accused, identified as Mohd Javed, surrendered before the police in Bareilly.

In a video shared by news agency ANI, he says: "...I ran straight to Delhi and from there I have to come to Bareilly to surrender. I have received phone calls from people about what my brother did..."

Two children – Ayush (13) and Aahan (6) – were hacked to death on Tuesday evening in Badaun's Baba Colony by Sajid (27), who ran a barber shop across from the victims’ house.

Sajid was killed in a police encounter three hours later when he was reportedly trying to flee.

The FIR registered in the case said Sajid entered the house on the false pretext of seeking ₹5,000 to treat his pregnant wife.

“The accused Sajid entered the house at around 7:30pm and went to the terrace where the children were playing. He attacked the two children and murdered them," Badaun SSP Alok Priyadarshi had said. "He then came down where the crowd tried to hold him back but he escaped...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.”

Investigators, so far, have no clarity on what drove Sajid to brutally attack Ayush and Aahan.

Priyadarshi said that while police had not found any reason to believe that there was an old enmity or dispute between the accused and the victims’ family, the way in which the crime was committed hinted that it could be a hate crime.

“Some people are also talking about occult practices, but we have, so far, not found that to be the case,” he said.

The police also took Sajid's father, Babu, and uncle, Kayamuddin, into custody for questioning. Heavy police deployment was seen across Badaun to avoid a flare-up of communal tensions.