The Devil Within

Note: This story is based on real-life incidents that happened in Tamil Nadu. This incident is personally attached to me. When it happened, I was in 4^th grade. It was the only case in which I was at the crime scene with my close friend Naveen (he was like an elder brother to me). I cannot forget this case. The purpose of this story is not to hurt anyone but to tell the tragic story of the murdered victims. This story is dedicated to Rithik and Muskin.

Disclaimer: At that time, this case was talked about all over Tamil Nadu. In every tea shop and every house, this conversation was going on. In fact, only after that did a new law come into effect that black sun film should not be completely hid.

For the last few days, we've been seeing twisted stories, but there’s no twist in this story. But each incident will make our blood boil and our hearts throb. It will make us think that this should not happen in any other house. Why were the children killed? Who killed them? How did they torture and kill them? And what was the punishment given to those criminals? Let’s see about the case that shook the whole city.

October 29, 2010

In Tamil Nadu, which is the most peaceful state in India, and in Coimbatore (the Manchester of South India), which was famous for its beautiful climate and Kongu Tamil, it was the day that shocked not only the people of Coimbatore but also the whole nation.

In Coimbatore, on Rangai Gounder Street, Ranjith Kumar Jain lived with his wife Sangeetha Jain, and he was a businessman who had a textile shop. They had a 10-year-old daughter, Muskin Jain, and an 8-year-old son, Rithik Jain. Both of them were studying at a private school in Gandhipuram.

When their lives were going normally and happily like every other day, on October 29, 2019, the day was busy as usual in Coimbatore. Ranjith Kumar went out of town for business purposes, and both his children were getting ready for school. The time was exactly 7:50 in the morning.

Rithik and Muskin took their school bag and lunch bag and got ready for school. Since their house was inside the street to send them safely, Sangeetha Jain and her mother brought them to the main road and waited for the taxi.

Usually the kids will go to school in a Surya Cabs Call taxi. But that day, an Omni van came to pick up the kids. It was not the taxi company’s van. In that call taxi company, where they usually travel, Mohan Raj, who was a driver in that company, drove the Omni van.

Since Mohan Raj took the kids several times to school, Sangeetha didn’t suspect anything. In their eagerness to get to school, both kids jumped into the van. But the van, without going to school, started to go faster on the Coimbatore-Pollachi road.

An innocent Muskin asked, "Uncle. Why are you going this way? We should go to school."

"Today is a holiday, ma. So we are going for a tour," said Mohan Raj.

Even when the children were crying to go home, Mohan didn’t listen to them. When both the kids were crying and going in the van, in the next 45 minutes, the van went to Pollachi and then started going towards Valparai Road.

At the same time, in Rangai Gounder Street, the taxi that the kids usually take came there. Since the kids were not there, the driver immediately called Ranjith Kumar, and he came to know that the kids went in another van.

Immediately, parents called the school. But they said that the kids didn’t come to school. Now everyone was panicked, and they investigated the Omni van, but no one knew about it. Without delaying, they called the police at 10:45 in the morning.

It was reported to Commissioner Babu by the city police co-intelligence team. He ordered the city police to check every vehicle by keeping checkposts to find the kids. But it is of no use. Since they were searching for the kidnapping van, the van was at Angalakurichi on the Pollachi-Valparai road.

Mohan stopped the van in front of a house there, and to an old lady, he asked, "Grandma. Is Manoharan there in the house?"

The old lady said, "He is not at home, pa." Now, Mohan took the van and stopped at another place. He called Manoharan and made him come there.

When he got there, they stopped the van in a place where there was no human traffic. Their plan is to get their father’s number from 10-year-old Muskin and threaten him for money.

Mohan Raj was driving his call taxi on loan. But there wasn't enough income, and he couldn’t pay the EMI. During Diwali time, he couldn’t pay the EMI, and there was no money for his expenses. He planned to kidnap children, get money from their parents, and settle down.

He took Rithik and Muskin to school when Surya Cabs was not available, and Mohan knows that their family is rich. He planned that before that cab came, if he went there, he could easily kidnap them.

Now Mohan kidnapped the kids and joined his friend Manoharan for help. While this was happening, police came to know that they kidnapped them for money, and they fixed the caller ID on the kids house LAN line so that they could have the conversation. But they didn’t get any phone calls, as they expected.

Now suddenly, Mohan Raj changed the plan for getting money. He feared that if he asked for money, he might get caught by the police. They feared that they might get caught in a kidnapping case.

In panic, Mohan Raj did a foolish, horrible, ugly, and shameless thing like that. He and his friend Manoharan decided to do a horrible thing that no one could imagine. They decided to rape that 10-year-old girl without any mercy.

First, they tied Rithik and Muskin with a rope and pushed Rithik into the van's backseat. Mohan and Manohar beat and kicked him without thinking that he was a kid. Since there is a black sun film in the van, what was happening in that van was not visible outside.

(If black-and-white sun film was not stuck in the van, someone might have saved them.)

Now no one knows what was happening inside that van. But the kids who were there in great fear noticed the people going here and there, and they longed for someone to come and save them.

When I think about it, my heart feels heavy. (Then think about how the children might feel during that time.)

No one heard the screaming of the kids inside the van. Since the sound was high inside the van, Mohan and Manoharan left the plan of raping Muskin and thought of another horrible plan.

The kids were scared and didn’t know why or what was happening. Now Mohan and Manoharan planned to kill both kids.

"If we leave them, we might get caught by the police," said Manoharan. They covered the kids heads with a polythene cover and made them suffocate. But their plan was foiled by the struggle of the kids.

This was happening on the Anaimalai-Pazhani road. Since the kidnapping happened a long time ago, Manoharan feared that the police might find them. Again, Mohan planned another murder. They planned to kill the kids by pushing them off the mountain.

Since there was continuous movement of the vehicle, that plan also didn’t work. Now, on the Anaimalai-Pazhani road near Udumalaipettai, they went to Deepalapatti. Before that, they stopped the van and made the kids drink the cow dunk powder mixed with milk. But the kids refused and pushed for it, and the third plan also failed.

The time is exactly 10 in the morning, and their fear of the police increased. Now in Deepalapatti, there’s a big canal named the PAP Contour Canal. Mohan went inside the village and stopped their van near the canal.

Manohar released the knots between Rithik and Muskin. He said, "If you eat, we will leave you in your house."

But the children refused again. Hence, the duo compelled them to eat one or two chapattis. After that, Mohan and Manoharan beat and kicked 10-year-old Muskin.

"Brother. Please spare me. Don’t do anything. Please" Muskin pleaded with the duo to spare her. However, without any mercy, Mohan took off the kid’s uniform dress and raped her. After he raped her, Manoharan also satisfied his desire for Muskin.

Now Mohan threatened Muskin and Rithik to get up and wash their hands in the canal. The kids were scared and sat near the Contour canal (where lots of adults died while bathing), which was full of running water, and washed their hands in the running water without knowing that the whole world washed them away.

Meanwhile, Mohan pushed the kids into the canal, not knowing what was going to happen to them. Now Manoharan saw the kids struggling in the water and confirmed their deaths. While the duo was leaving, they threw the kid’s school bag there.

Because of that school bag, this truth came out. Some people who passed by saw those bags, thought that the school kids who came here to bathe accidentally fell down, and informed the police. since they didn’t know about the missing children.

At the same time, while this was happening at 11:30 in the morning, without knowing all this, the police thought of finding the kids before evening. The police got all the drivers phone numbers from the taxi company and called everyone.

Except Mohan Raj, everyone attended the call. Mohan’s phone was switched off. Now police have information about the kid’s bag lying near the PAP Contour Canal. Knowing this information, the police got upset, and they doubted that Mohan might have killed the kids by pushing them into the canal.

Now the police searched for the kid's body in Deepalapatti. After they searched for a while, the police found the body of a 10-year-old Muskin, but there was no information regarding Rithik. Commissioner Babu, meanwhile, thought that they killed Muskin and kept Rithik alive, and they started searching for the killers seriously.

At 5 in the evening, the police noticed Mohan Raj’s phone signal, and immediately they started tracing the number. His location was near Udumalaipettai’s Dhali. After searching for a while, police found him with his signal.

Mohan also accepted that he killed the kids by pushing them into the canal. Rithik’s body was found the next day in Thirumoorthi Dam, and the same day, Manoharan was also arrested. There are no words to explain the pain of the parents who lost both their kids.

When Commissioner Babu said, "Even though the kids went missing at 7:55 in the morning, we got the information at 10:45 only, At that time, the van went beyond Pollachi and out of the surveillance area. If we had known the information earlier, we might have had some time to find the kids alive. Because of this incident, we are also sad."

This incident spread all over Tamil Nadu and created panic. Now lots of people have started raising their voices against Manoharan and Mohan Raj. Voices started coming from the public, politicians, and actors.

At that time in Udumalapet, Adhithya’s grandma Sundarammal, who was receiving her medical treatment, made a very strict statement to him and his close friend Naveen. She condemned the brutal double murders.

"The law should be changed in a way that they should be given the death penalty," said Sundrammal. After this, Adhithya and Naveen went to the crime scene in Deepalapatti.

Now the public, politicians, actors, and everyone else got a request from the government to give them the utmost punishment. In fact, the government got pressure from every side.

Babu, meanwhile, took Mohan Raj and Manoharan into custody after submitting them to the court and started investigating them separately. After that, to show how they killed, the police took them in separate cars.

The commissioner secretly planned for an encounter of the duo with his police team in Chettipalayam-Coimbatore road’s dump yard area around 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., and the whole road was blocked before the encounter.

Recalling the way Muskin died, Babu turned to Inspector Durai and asked him to shoot Mohan in the head. Pointing rightly, the inspector killed the accused.

Later, Commissioner Babu said in a press conference that "Mohan tired of escaping with a police gun. He attacked and threatened the cops. Further, she asked us to turn the vehicle to Kerala. When we tried to catch him, Mohan tried to shoot the police, and hence, we encountered him."

After this news came out, Sundrammal, Adhithya, and Naveen started celebrating it with firecrackers along with the public in Pollachi. A lot of wishes came to the Commissioner.

Now the public has requested to encounter Manoharamn as well. But he didn’t know about this encounter for a long time, and when he did, he became afraid of everyone. Manoharan was scared that he would also die like that. The fear that was there for his life was not there while killing two kids.

Babu, who speeded up the investigation in 45 days, filed 400 crime reports. The case happened in the Women’s High Court, and 126 witnesses were investigated. 85 documents were checked, and the judgement was given in 2012.

The court said, "Mohan Raj and Manoharan are found guilty without any doubts." For committing a heinous crime, Manoharan was given three life sentences and two death sentences. Hearing this, the Coimbatore people started celebrating with firecrackers again.

Manoharan appealed in the high court, but the court gave him the same punishment. Again, he appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court gave the same punishment, and the day also came. Even though the kids won’t come alive again, their death penalty gave little relief to the kids family.

When there were only three days to complete the death penalty, an order from the Supreme Court was issued to stop it. It ordered this for reading the revision petition given at the last time in favour of Manoharan.

But after the revision, the Supreme Court said, "This mistake was unforgivable. No mistake should happen against kids hereafter." In the hopes of finishing this case, in 2019, they gave Manoharan the death penalty. Now the date was not fixed, and he was still alive in jail.

Two years later, Rithik and Muskin’s mother, Sangeetha, commits suicide, unable to bear the loss of her children. Deeply affected by her death, Ranjith Kumar becomes mad, and his family members take care of him. Further, Naveen got angered by the fact that Manoharan didn’t get the death penalty, and the subsequent atrocities and crimes in Tamil Nadu affected him psychologically.

Because of Naveen’s present condition and the subsequent death of Sundrammal, Adhithya made a firm decision to bring about a change in Indian Politics as well as a reformation in Indian law.

Looking at the photo of Rithik and Muskin, Adhithya said, "I was deeply affected by your death. I was really angry. I was ready to encounter those culprits at that age by taking the law into my own hands. But I eventually changed my mind for the sake of my family. If Naveen hadn't been affected and my grandma hadn’t died, I would have remained selfish. I realised that glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt."

EPILOGUE

So readers. What do you think about this story? Do you think that instead of the death penalty, Manoharan should get the same as Mohan Raj? Or do you think that this death penalty is enough? What changes do you want to avoid in this society? Don’t forget to comment with your opinions. To be safe from this kind of person, share this story with all the parents to be cautious.