We’re twins who were strangled to death four months before we were born – and have chilling ‘proof’ of our past life

TWIN boys who claimed to be reincarnated vividly described how their former selves were strangled by a mob and thrown down a well.

Ramoo and Rajoo were born four months after the murders - with birthmarks on their bodies allegedly showing wounds from where they were held down by the killers.

The boys also remembered details of their lives as a pair of twin farmers who lived ten miles away in rural India, reports claim.

And they recognised their murderers who came to visit them after news of the purported reincarnation spread.

The chilling case was recorded by Ian Stevenson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia who was also known for his decades of research into paranormal perception.

He collected more than 3,000 "reincarnation type" cases around the world.

One of the most striking was that of Ram and Shesh Narain Diwedi, who were nicknamed Ramoo and Rajoo.

They were born in the tiny village of Sham Nagara - home to just 100 people - in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in August 1964.

While she was pregnant, their mother dreamt she would have two boys, it was claimed.

At the age of three, the twins ran away trying to reach "home" - the village of Uncha Larpur where they said they had lived before.

Although only ten miles away, few people travelled between the villages and the twins' family did not know anyone there.

Ramoo and Rajoo went on to recall details of their "past lives" that shocked relatives.

Ramoo said he was formerly called Bhimsen, Rajoo said he was called Bhism Pitamah, and they said they owned land with their older brother Chandra.

Both boys described how they were killed by a man named Jagannath who feigned a peace deal after a quarrel.

According to Stevenson's account, they said Jagannath was "very friendly" and gave them milk.

But then they were attacked, "something poisonous in a bottle" was thrown in their faces, and their bodies were thrown down a well.

The boys also named two of the murderers as Raja Ram and Hori Lal.

The details eerily matched a real double murder in the April before they were born.

Tearful 'reunion'

Bhimsen and Bhism Pitamah Tripathi, aged around 29, were ambushed and killed following a land dispute.

Jagannath, an elder from a neighbouring village, is said to have invited them to his home for a reconciliation.

Their rope-bound bodies were found dumped in a well days after they went missing.

Nine suspects - including Raja Ram and Hori Lal - were arrested but all were acquitted after none would testify against the others.

However, some of them later boasted of what they had done, reports say.

The mob allegedly threw acid in the brothers' faces, pinned them to the floor with poles crossing their torsos and legs, then strangled them with a wooden post from a cot bed.

The claims caused a stir in the area, and soon the dead twins' relatives went to see the youngsters.

Ramoo and Rajoo were said to have been in tears at the sight of their "mother", and "older brother" - named Chandra as they had said.

They are also said to have recognised their "sons" and acted "paternally" despite their young age themselves.

The boys also recognised some of the killers, who visited out of an "eerie blend of anxiety and curiosity", Stevenson later wrote in a book.

The scientist first heard of the case in 1971 and went to interview them two years later when they were aged nine.

He noted the family were not seeking publicity and in fact wanted to supress the boys' memories fearing reprisals from the Tripathis' killers.

Their father allegedly beat them and forbade them from speaking about their past lives to anyone except the researcher.

Stevenson also noted that both twins had unusual birthmarks unlike any he had seen before.

He said they had streaks of increased pigmentation about 2mm wide running horizontally across their torsos and abdomens.

The professor concluded the birthmarks corresponded with the poles the murderers had used to pin down the Tripathi twins.

Stevenson researched the subject for 40 years, and believed there was some behaviour that could only be explained by reincarnation.

Supporters hailed him as a misunderstood genius, but critics said he was too eager to believe and was duped by people he studied.

Yesterday we told how a five-year-old boy claimed he was the reincarnation of a woman killed in a fire decades years before he was born.

Luke Ruehlman's mother Erika said he spooked her by starting to speak about a woman called Pam at the age of two.

He told her he "used to be" Pam, but "I died and I went up to heaven".

He claimed his past self was Pam Robinson, one of 19 people who died in the Paxton Hotel blaze in Chicago in 1993.

Erika says he recalled facts about the real Pam's life that he could not possibly have learned himself.