Representative image.

JABALPUR: A man killed his 18-month-old daughter on Friday on learning that his wife had delivered yet another baby girl — the fourth. He allegedly grabbed the infant and banged her head on the floor, killing her instantly.

After that, dumped her body in a drain and went to meet his wife. Municipal employees found the body when they came to check what was clogging the sewage line.

Vijay Nagar TI U N Soni said that he had received a call from the sanitation workers that they had found an infant’s body in the Deen Dayal Chawk drainage line. Police found that it had been concealed under a heavy stone slab. An autopsy detected fatal injuries to her skull and forehead.

Faced with an unidentified victim, police began checking on those in the neighbourhood who had daughters. When they arrived at the house of Ajju alias Ramesh Varman, they found two little girls, aged five and three, sitting in a corner and trembling with fear. The cops gently consoled them and got them to talk. The elder daughter described how their father had “grabbed her little sister by the hair and smashed her head on the floor”. “Then, he took her outside and hasn’t returned,” she told police.

Police headed for the hospital, and found Ajju beside her wife and the newborn girl. He was taken into custody and sent to jail. Initial investigations suggest that he was reeling under debt and was not earning enough to support his family. A native of Shahdol district , he had moved into Deen Dayal Nagar three months ago and worked as a daily wager. Neighbours have told police that he was an alcoholic.

