india

Updated: Jun 20, 2019 10:30 IST

A 27-year-old man has been arrested in Chikmaglur district for allegedly killing his 45-day-old daughter, police said Wednesday.

According to police, Manjunath, a resident of Buchanahalli Kaval, strangled his daughter on Tuesday when his wife was not at home. They said the accused killed his daughter because he wished to have a son.

Superintendent of Police for the district, Harish Pandey, said Manjunath ran away from the house after the incident.

When the family found the girl’s body, they called a doctor who said she had died of asphyxiation, police said. The family, however, buried the body, officials said. “Some neighbours came across Manjunath in the village and confronted him, following which he confessed to the murder. They informed the police, but he managed to escape,” said Pandey.

Manjunath was nabbed around 12 pm on Wednesday. “He said he wanted a son and, hence, strangled his daughter,” Pandey said.

The police exhumed the girl’s body on Wednesday and the postmortem has revealed that the girl suffered two injuries from the strangulation.

“Manjunath has been booked under the charge of murder and arrested. We will produce him before a local court soon,” Pandey said.