In a bizarre incident, two mentally disabled children - Srijana Reddy and her twin brother Vishnuvardhan Reddy, both aged 12 - were strangled to death on late Friday by their maternal uncle Mallikarjun Reddy in his rented house in the Chaitanyapuri area.
Disclosing this to the media, Assistant Commissioner of Police Prithvidhar Rao said that Reddy had murdered the children by strangulating them with a pillow, and was shifting the bodies in a car belonging to his friend Vivek Reddy when, following a complaint by the house owner, the police intercepted the car and took Mallikarjun Reddy and Vivek Reddy into custody and registered murder cases against them.
The ACP said that the incident came to light when the house-owner noticed the accused along with two others trying to shift the bodies in a car and alerted the police.
To cover up his crime, the accused tried to convince the police that the kids had consumed a cool drink after mixing Harpic in it, the ACP said.
Mallikarjun Reddy had brought the children to the city from their village in Nalgonda on Friday. He had told his sister Lakshmi and brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy that he would teach the children to swim.
The parents told the police that the twins were mute and also mentally disabled since birth.
Upon grilling the accused confessed to the crime and told the police that he could not let his sister suffer the hardships of looking after the mentally disabled children.
The couple did not lodge a police complaint against Mallikarjun Reddy.