Birbal Boro, a resident of Lahapara village, was arrested after his wife filed an FIR at the local police station, accusing him of killing their daughter.

The police in north-western Assam’s Baksa district have arrested a man for drowning his infant daughter in order to be cured of an unknown disease from which he was suffering.

Birbal Boro, a resident of Lahapara village, was arrested on Saturday after his wife filed a First Information Report at the local police station, accusing him of killing their daughter.

The accused had gone out with his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter for a walk Friday but returned home a couple of hours later without her. He told members of his family that he had “immersed the girl in the river because God had ordered him” to do this.

Locals said the man was ill for almost a month and had visited a quack, who advised him to sacrifice one of his three children if he wanted to be cured.

The police retrieved the body of the girl with the help of a State Disaster Response Force team.

“We are questioning the man, his family members and other villagers to find out if any quack or witchdoctor was involved,” the district’s Superintendent of Police T.P. Vijay Kumar told The Hindu.

The police would be producing the accused in a local court after his medical examination.