Maharashtra woman cooks up 2 kids’ kidnap story, kills nephew to frame husband’s ‘lover’

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: A 34-year-old woman allegedly strangled her seven-year-old nephew to death and fabricated a kidnapping story involving two minor boys — the nephew and her own son — to falsely implicate her husband's alleged lover in Latur district's Chakur town, the police said on Monday.The accused, Anita Swami, confessed to the crime during questioning, stating that she was disturbed by her husband's extramarital relationship, and plotted the murder and fake abduction to frame the woman, the police said.The case came to light on Sunday after two cousins — Saicharan Swami (10) and Devansh Swami (7) — went missing from the Juna Mahadev Mandir Galli area around 7am. The boys are grandsons of the Mahadev temple priest, Chandrakant Swami. After a search, the family alerted the police around 1pm.The police said that on receiving an alert about two missing children, a team led by inspector Balaji Bhande immediately launched a search. "Around 2.10pm, Devansh's body was found in an open plot near an old house along the Chakur-Ujalamb road, close to the family's residence," said Bhande.A panchnama was conducted, and the body was sent for postmortem to the rural hospital in Chakur.The probe took a turn after Saicharan was traced late on Sunday night in Latur, about 40km from Chakur, after he used a mechanic's cellphone to call his father. Initially, the child claimed that a woman had kidnapped both cousins and that he escaped. However, later he revealed that his mother had tutored him to fabricate the kidnap story. Subsequently, Anita was taken in for questioning, and she eventually confessed to the murder.Latur superintendent of police Amol Tambe said, "After tracking down Saicharan, our teams interacted with him to find out how he had reached Latur. Initially, he said that he and his cousin were taken by a woman, and he somehow managed to escape and reach Latur. However, during the course of the investigation, we found contradictions in the boy's version. On sustained questioning, Saicharan revealed that his mother had sent him by bus to her brother's house in Latur."The police also identified another minor from the neighbourhood who was allegedly used to lure Devansh to the accused woman's house.The police said Anita later confessed to strangling Devansh to death and deliberately creating a false kidnapping narrative to mislead investigators and implicate her husband's alleged lover.The initial search was led by a team under inspector Bhande. Later, four teams from the Chakur police station and the local crime branch, along with forensic and dog squads, were deployed. Senior officers, including SP Amol Tambe, additional SP Mangesh Chavan and SDPO Ravindra Chaudhari, supervised the investigation.Based on a complaint by Mangesh Swami, the police registered a murder case early on Monday and arrested the accused. Further investigation is underway.