Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 29: A man was arrested in North Kashmir’s Sopore town for allegedly killing his minor daughter as he suspected that she was an illegitimate child, police said here today.
While addressing a press conference, Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, J P Singh said that Altaf Ahmad of Laiser, Rafiabad, along with his elder brother Muhammad Maqbool Rather had reported to police that his daughter Muskan Altaf, 7, has been missing from her home.
The DIG said that Police filed a missing report and search was started. “During the search on the next day a throat-slit body of the girl was found in an apple orchard on the outskirts of the village Laisar. A sharp edged knife, a ten rupee currency note and an empty jute bag used to contain animal fodder were also recovered from the spot,” Singh said.
Singh said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to investigate the gruesome blind murder. “In the process of investigation a reasonable suspicion was developed against the father of the victim, who was called for questioning alongwith other relatives”, he said.
The DIG said they the man had misinformed them about the age of the girl who was actually seven years old. He said that the girl was last seen in the company of her father and he was asked to explain the circumstances leading to her going missing and being subsequently murdered.
“It was found from marriage and medical records that the baby was born in less than nine months of the marriage of her parents. This had made the father suspicious about the girl being his biological child. Over a period of time this developed into an extreme hatred”, Singh said.
The DIG said that another motive of killing his own daughter was his greed as he was expecting cash compensation from Government once his daughter was discovered killed as he was to put blame on militants for the reason that his wife was a village panchayat member.
“On the day of murder he sent his wife to take their son to a doctor for medical consultation. Once his wife left, he took the girl in the outskirts in the apple orchard area and killed her by choking her,” Singh said.
The DIG said that to mislead the police, Rather slit the throat with a knife and concealed the body in a bag and hid it under the grass and bushes.
Singh said that Rather was arrested and circumstantial and scientific evidence corroborate his involvement in murder of his daughter.
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