Ranchi: Man strangulates toddler ‘as he did not want a girl child’, say police

A Ranchi man allegedly strangulated his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter to death because he ‘did not want a girl child’.

According to the police, the incident took place on Saturday around 8 am. Gautam Prasad Mahato’s daughter began crying, at which he lost his cool and killed her.

Officers said Mahato, 35, a resident of Mukchundtoli locality in the Chutia police station area of Ranchi, is an alcoholic and would often beat up his family members. On Saturday after the incident, Mahato’s wife Babita Devi alerted her relatives, who called the police.

SSP Ranchi Surendra Kumar Jha said: “The father has been arrested and booked for murdering his daughter.”

The FIR was lodged on the basis of Devi’s complaint, who said they had been married in 2014 and had two children. The elder child was a boy, but ever since the daughter was born, her husband started behaving badly and would beat her.

“Unka kehna tha ki unhe beti nahi chahiye. Main kisi tarah se unke maarpit ko sehen karte hue yeh aasha mein thi ki unme sudhaar ho jayega, parantu unka atyachar din pratidin badhta gaya (He used to say he never wanted a daughter. I put up with his beatings in the hope that he would improve, but his atrocities only increased),” Devi said in her complaint.

The complaint added that on Saturday between 8 am and 9 am, her husband got agitated and attacked their daughter. “He started strangulating my daughter. She was choking. I tried my best fighting for my child, but I could not save her. She died on the spot, I somehow managed to escape and locked the doors and informed my brother-in-law.”

Babita Devi’s brother-in-law then gathered more people and overpowered Mahato. In her complaint, Devi said, “This is my claim that my husband did not want the girl child and that is why she was murdered by my husband. Please take the strictest action against him.”

Chutiya Police Station in-charge Ravi Thakur said he had been informed by locals that Mahato had admitted himself in a de-addiction centre, but relapsed again. He added: “As of now we believe he did not want a daughter and that was the motive of the murder. He has also beaten his mother and brother in the past and was of a violent nature. He used to work with a builder and ran his own lodge.”