A 30-year-old man strangled his four-year-old daughter while she was asleep at their house in outer Delhi in the early hours of Wednesday, the police said on Thursday. The man killed the child following repeated fights with his wife, whom he suspected of having an affair, the police said.

The police arrested the man from his parents’ house in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar where he explained to the family that the child was ill and died suddenly.

According to the police, a call was received at the police control room on Wednesday that was transferred to the Nihal Vihar police station; the caller reported that a couple may have killed their four-year-old daughter and fled their house.

A senior police officer, who requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that when a police team from Nihal Vihar police station arrived at the Udai Vihar house of the couple, they found them missing. Locals said Malkit Singh lived in the rented house with his wife Simran Kaur, 28, and daughter Kirat Kaur.

“Local enquiry helped us get the couple’s Tilak Nagar address and a raid was conducted at their house where the couple and Singh’s parents were preparing for the girl’s cremation. The child’s body was taken to a hospital and was preserved for a post-mortem examination,” the officer said.

During questioning, Singh and his wife said that they used to have regular arguments over their family’s financial status and other issues. Singh had asked his wife not to talk to some of her male colleagues in a private company, suspecting that she could be having an affair, the police said.

Simran had quit her job about 7-8 months ago because of which the family was going through a financial crisis, the police said.

“After once such fight on Tuesday night, when Singh was drinking alcohol at his house, he also offered his wife a drink. While drinking, he discussed if they should take their lives and hand over their daughter to Singh’s parents in Tilak Nagar. They continued to drink,” said the officer, who is also investigating the case.

Simran passed out after the drinking session. “Singh said he then locked his wife in the room and went to the room where his daughter was sleeping. He said first he tried to strangle the child with his bare hands but could not. He then used his wife’s dupatta and strangled the child. After that while he was trying to hang himself from a ceiling fan using the dupatta, his wife regained consciousness,” the police officer said.

Simran broke a window pane and saw her husband trying to hang himself, the police said. “When she started calling out to neighbours for help, Singh unlocked her. The woman checked on her daughter and found her dead. On this, the man threatened to kill her also and asked her to leave the house immediately,” the officer added.

The neighbours had heard the ruckus. Neighbours told police that when they saw the couple leaving the house they spotted the child wrapped in a bedsheet. They alerted the couple’s landlord, who called up the police, the officer said.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer Delhi) Seju P Kuruvilla said Singh was arrested for the murder of his four-year-old daughter. “So far, his wife’s role has not surfaced in the murder but we are probing all the possible angles,” he said.

Police said Singh was unemployed for the past 2-3 months. He used to work as a delivery man for an app-based food delivery firm.

First Published: May 16, 2019 23:01 IST