About two weeks ago, skeletons of two youths were recovered from Patna. The skeletons of the two men, both in their 20s, were found in the posh Shivpuri locality here.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, after coming to power in November 2005, had promised to make Bihar a crime-free state within three months. But police records suggest otherwise.

While the chief minister claimed that the number of kidnappings had come down drastically during his rule, such incidents are being reported at regular intervals across the state. Last month, the Bihar government said over 2,000 children had been abducted in the state in the last eight years and the fate of 340 of them was still not known.

According to official reports, 2,167 children were kidnapped between 2001 and 2009. Of them, 1,752 were recovered and 75 killed.