Patna: A man in Bihar has killed his 16-month-old daughter allegedly by injecting poison into her body in what is believed to be a case of gender discrimination.
The incident took place in Kiranpur village under Bath police station in Bhagalpur district, some 225km east of the state capital Patna, on Tuesday. A case has been registered with the police by the victim’s mother.
In her complaint petition, the victim’s mother, Neha Devi, alleged that she had gone out for some work when her husband, Amit Kumar Singh, injected poison into her infant daughter, leading to her death.
“When I returned home, I saw my daughter twisting her body with pain. She died soon thereafter,” Devi alleged.
As per reports, the woman had married Singh, her old classmate, in 2013. Both were studying in a same college when they fell in love. But the man was angry after she gave to a female child, reports said.
The police have begun an investigation, but the accused is yet to be arrested. “We are investigating the case. We have conducted autopsy of the body, but the report is yet to come. We will act once getting the report,” said local police official Dilip Kumar Sigh who is in charge of investigation.
According to a report, the sex ratio in at least nine districts out of Bhiar’s 38 is less than 900 against the state’s average of 916 women per 1,000 men.
Gender discrimination is also rife in the state, with reports of such incidents emerging from districts in Patna, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, vaishali, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Munger.
Significantly, Dharhara village in Bhagalpur district had earlier made international headlines for its initiative to fighting female infanticide by planting trees to celebrate birth of girls.
