india

Updated: Jun 09, 2018 22:24 IST

A man who allegedly sacrificed his four-year-old daughter by slitting her throat was arrested by Jodhpur rural police on Saturday.

The incident occurred at Pipad in Jodhpur district late on Thursday. Police superintendent (Jodhpur rural) Rajan Dushyant said the accused – identified as 26-year-old Nawab Ali Qureshi – has confessed to the crime.

“I am a Namazi and I love my child more than my own life. I offered my daughter as a sacrifice,” police quoted the accused as saying during an interrogation.

According to police, Qureshi had brought his daughter back from her grandmother’s place on Thursday. He fed the child with sweets and fruits from the market before taking her home. Late that night, while the rest of the family was fast asleep, he woke the victim and took her to the veranda. There, he set her on his lap and read a kalma (prayer).

According to the accused’s confession, it was at this juncture that “Satan came over him” – making him allegedly slit his daughter’s throat. After the deed was done, he went back to sleep.

Police said Qureshi’s wife, Shabana, stepped out around 3 am to find her daughter’s bloodied body on the veranda. The couple took the child to the government order, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

A case of murder was initially registered against unknown people after Shabana filed a complaint. A team of forensic experts summoned from Jodhpur collected blood and other pieces of evidence from the crime scene. Police began suspecting the father’s involvement after questioning family members about the incident.