Patna: A woman in Bihar killed her six-day-old baby girl, and dumped her body into a septic tank, as she didn’t want to bring up a second daughter, officials said.

Police arrested the accused woman on Wednesday.

The incident took place at Punas village in Samastipur district, sending shock waves in the areas.

The baby was killed on a day when the entire family was busy celebrating Chhati, a ritual conducted on the sixth day after the birth of a child.

Police said the woman, identified as Pinki Devi, wife of Santosh Rai, was not happy from the moment she gave birth to a baby girl for the second consecutive time. She had delivered the baby at a local government hospital on January 9.

However, her family members were not upset at all and had even arranged a Chhati celebration in the house. Just before the ritual was to begin, the baby suddenly went missing from the house. After an extensive search in the every corner of the house, her body was found dumped into the septic tank of the toilet.

Police recovered the body on Tuesday.

“Apparently the baby was first strangulated to death before being thrown into the toilet tank,” the local Samastipur district superintendent of police Nawal Kishore Singh told the media on Wednesday adding the accused would be suitably punished.

He said the police had evidence to prove the baby girl was killed, adding they would bring the case to the logical conclusion.

Police said the woman was not happy after she gave birth to the second girl child. According to the police, the woman’s mother-in-law got suspicious of her role in the killing when she found her rushing to the toilet more often than usual.

Discrimination on the basis of sex is quite common in Bihar and there have been several incidents of girl children as well as their mothers treated with disdain despite continuing awareness drive by the government.

Last month, a man from Nawada district of Bihar handed out divorce to his wife after she gave birth to baby girl for the second consecutive time. The victim woman has now filed a case both with the police and also in the court, hoping to get justice soon.

The couple was married seven years back and everything was fine in the family until she the girl child came in the family. The victim is shocked at the way she was “punished” for no faults of her.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has launched much-publicised “Selfies with Daughters” campaign aimed at saving girl children.

In July last year, a man from Jamui district of Bihar slit open the throat of his wife with a sharp-edged knife after she gave birth to her fourth daughter in quick succession. In the same month, a 30-year-old woman was beaten to death by her in-laws in Gaya district for allegedly giving birth to fifth daughter in quick succession.

Yet another woman was burnt to death in Muzaffarpur district the same month after she had given birth to two daughters at a time.

Earlier in February, a man from Bhagalpur district killed his 16-month-old daughter by allegedly injecting poison into her body, prompting mother to register case against her husband.

Gender discrimination is rampant in Bihar, and according to a report, the sex ratio in at least nine districts out of state’s total 38 is less than 900 against state’s average at 916 per 1,000 male population. The districts reporting unpleasant stories are Patna, capital of Bihar, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, vaishali, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Munger.