Satna: The six-year-old twin sons of a businessman kidnapped at gunpoint in Madhya Pradesh's Satna district have been found dead in the Yamuna River in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Sunday. Sporadic protests erupted in Chitrakoot town of Satna soon after the news of their death reached the place, prompting police to step up security. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has condemned the deaths of the children. He said, "I spoke to victims' father. The politics behind it will also be uncovered. Whose flag was there on the vehicle in which they were travelling, the police is exposing all that. The opposition is scared because their people are involved."

The children, both in kindergarten and sons of oil merchant Brijesh Rawat, were kidnapped at gunpoint by two masked persons from Chitrakoot when they were returning home in their school bus on February 12. The kidnappers had later demanded a ransom from the children's father, Chitrakoot's Nayagaon police station in-charge K P Tripathi said. He said the bodies of the children were found floating in the Yamuna river near Baberu village in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district late Saturday night.

The bodies were later fished out from the river and sent for post mortem to a hospital in Banda, he said. Six people were so far arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing, Tripathi said, adding that an investigation was underway into the incident.

Meanwhile, as the news of the children's death came in, locals forced closure of shops and other business establishments in Chitrakoot town, a police official said. Some angry locals also burnt tyres on streets and vandalised private properties at some places, he said. Tripathi said additional police force was deployed in Chitrakoot following the protests.

After the boys were kidnapped, Madhya Pradesh police had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information about the twin siblings.

The police of both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were working on the case since Chitrakoot is a border town. The two masked men had come on a motorbike and abducted the two children at gunpoint when their bus was about to leave the premises of Sadguru Public School on February 12, a police official earlier said.

The children were residents of Ramghat in Chitrakoot Dham (Karwi) district of Uttar Pradesh. They used to travel four km across the border to their school every day, Satna's Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh Gaur had said after the
incident.