Representative image.

NEW DELHI: An inebriated father threw his one-year-old daughter into a drain in southeast Delhi’s Jamia Nagar three days ago. The infant died in the drain.

The father, Rashid Zamal, a ragpicker who lived in the jhuggis in Shaheen Bagh, told police he did so because he disliked his daughter and didn’t want to take care of her because she was often ill.

The 40-year-old man was arrested for kidnapping and murder. After three days of trying to rescue the girl, her body was found on Wednesday. Police said Zamal had been living alone with his daughter for last one week. He and his daughter went missing on Sunday. When relatives started looking for them, he was found inebriated near the drain but the girl was missing.

On the intervening night of September 18-19, someone called the police to say a man was beating his wife and children. When the police reached the spot, Rashid’s wife Mofida Begum told them he has taken their daughter with him. “The wife said he was beating her, the elder son and the daughter. The son managed to flee and when she went out to call the neighbours, he left with the daughter,” said a senior police officer.

The police found him drunk in the bushes a few metres from the house. When questioned, he couldn’t tell them clearly where his daughter was but managed to say he had thrown her in a drain.

“The whole area was searched but, unfortunately, the girl couldn’t be found at that time. A case of kidnapping was registered and Rashid was taken into custody for a day. He said he was drunk and didn’t remember anything,” said DCP (southeast) Romil Baaniya. However, on sustained questioning, he took the police to the place where he had thrown the girl. Finally, three days after the incident was reported, the girl’s body was recovered from a drain parallel to the one Rashid had pointed out. Police said he showed no remorse. They said he told them the girl was ill and already dead, and that he had just dumped her.

After Rashid’s confession, the police added IPC Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information), the DCP said. According to the police, Rashid has three wives and eight children. The victim was his daughter from his third wife.

