The Hazaribagh Police cracked a gruesome double murder case with the arrest of a local showroom employee, who allegedly kidnapped and brutally killed an 11-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother, officials said on Wednesday.Representative image. (HT Photo)The accused, identified as Sanjeet Paswan, was apprehended by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday while attempting to flee the district, a police official said while informing about the breakthrough.Superintendent of Police (SP) of the district, Aman Kumar, confirmed the arrest. “Breakthrough came today,” the SP said. Later, he shared a press statement giving details of the incident, investigation and breakthrough.According to his statement, the victims went missing on May 27 from near the Lakshmi Petrol Pump area close to an Ola showroom under the Katkamdag police station jurisdiction. Following a complaint lodged by the children’s father, Mohammad Aamir, a kidnapping case was registered under Section 137(2)/96 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on May 30 .Taking the matter with utmost gravity, a high-level SIT led by additional superintendent of police (Operations) Amit Kumar was formed. During the investigation, CCTV footage from around the spot revealed a man picking up both children on a scooter from outside the showroom.The rider was later identified as Sanjeet Paswan, a resident of Sindur who worked at the same Ola showroom. The investigation took a tragic turn on May 31 when the body of the 11-year-old girl was recovered from the crematorium grounds (Shmashan Ghat) in Sindur, under the Korra police station limits. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams and canine squads were immediately deployed to gather evidence.Following an intensive search operation in the surrounding area, police discovered the body of her three-year-old brother stuffed inside a plastic sack, dumped in a well roughly 500 metres away from the crematorium. Both bodies were sent for autopsy under the supervision of a medical board.Upon strict interrogation following his arrest on Wednesday, Paswan confessed to the heinous crime. He revealed that he had befriended the young girl over the past two months as she frequently passed by the showroom. On May 27, he lured both siblings onto his scooter under the pretext of taking them out for snacks and buying a new mobile phone.He took them to an isolated spot at the Sindur crematorium under the cover of darkness. When the accused attempted to assault the girl, she raised an alarm. In a bid to silence her, Paswan drowned her in flowing water and strangled her to death before hiding her body in the bushes.Fearing detection, he then strangled her three-year-old brother, tied a plastic wrapper around his neck, packed the body into a sack, and threw it into a nearby well. Based on the disclosures made by the accused, the police team has recovered the scooter used in the crime, along with the plastic sack from his residence and the crime scene.