Upset over daughter’s affair, man pushes her into canal in Ballari

BALLARI: In a case of honour killing, a man killed his minor daughter by pushing her into the gushing Tungabhadra canal near Kudatini town in Ballari district on October 31. The accused, Omkar Gouda (46), surrendered before the police on November 8 and admitted to the crime.

He told the police that he was not happy with his daughter’s love affair with a youth from another community and hence decided to kill her. The police said that the mother of the victim had lodged a missing complaint on November 1 after her husband and daughter did not return home.

On the day of the murder, the accused took his daughter to a bank, took her transfer signature and got Rs 20 lakh deposited into his account. Later, he took her for a Kannada movie and also bought her a new pair of gold earrings. While returning home, he stopped his two-wheeler near the Tungabhadra canal and asked her to wait.

Father watched minor drown

As per his confession statement, Gouda pushed his daughter into the canal and started riding his bike, while she was screaming for help. He rode for several metres watching her and left only after ensuring that she had drowned. Gouda then went to his friend’s house and parked his two-wheeler. Without informing his friend, he took a bus to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and stayed in the temple town for some days.

Meanwhile, on November 2, the police traced the body of the girl from the Tungabhadra canal. The police and the family members had first suspected that the father too must have fallen into the canal in a suicide bid. It has come to light that the accused used to tell his friends about harming his daughter.  The police arrested the accused’s friend Bhimmappa, in whose house the two-wheeler was kept.