TIA/Correspondent
.jpg)
LUCKNOW: Almost a week after the Varanasi bomb blast, police have arrested a couple for their ‘deceptive behaviour’ during and after the blast.The couple are parents of one year old girl named Gauri, who was found abandoned on the ghats of Varanasi after the blast on December 7.
Though police have registered a case under Section 317 which holds person guilty of exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, yet investigative agencies are looking at all aspect of their deceptive behaviour.
Photographs of the girl were flashed across TV channels but non of the parent try to contact the police rather they fled from Varanasi. After few days a man named Gorakh Rajbhar contacted the local police saying that the girl’s parents were his tenants and had been conspicuous by their absence since the day of the blast. The house they lived in was locked.
The couple, Nilesh Pandey a.k.a. Tuntun Pandey and mother Gita Pandey who had left Varanasi the evening of the blast, were traced in Ballia, 60 km away, and brought back for questioning. The child, is in a children’s home run by Child Line, a voluntary organisation.
According to DIG Varanasi Prem Prakash, the parents were contradicting each other. Neelesh said he had a one-year-old daughter who died recently while Geeta had acknowledged Gauri as her daughter but claimed the blast had knocked the baby out of her arms and, failing to find her, the couple had presumed she was dead.
“She couldn’t explain why they did not wait to find out if the girl was actually dead, and why they did not inform the police,” said police sources.
In Varansi, Pandeys’ home was locked. The police broke the door open and found a phone dairy that had Neelesh’s mobile number. By tracking the number, the police ascertained that he was in Ballia.
On Monday, the police found Neelesh in a Gurdwara in Ballia where he was staying with name Tuntun.
Police picked up Geeta from Ballia railway station before she could catch her train to Ghazipur.
Inspector-General (Law and Order) A.P. Maheshwari told media persons that the couple were brought to Varanasi. The investigating agencies hope to find vital clues to the blast from them.