Police recovered the body of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl from a nullah in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district after she was pushed to her death by a relative, news agency Press Trust of India reported on Saturday.The girl's father, a resident of Keonjhar district in neighbouring Odisha, had lodged a police complaint after she went missing on November 11. Police have arrested the accused and sent him to judicial custody.The girl and her mother were visiting her step-uncle, Samir Pan, at his home in Narsanda village under the Muffasil police station area.
During the investigation, police found that the girl had left the house with Pan on November 11 but did not return, Muffasil police station officer-in-charge Vinod Kumar told PTI.According to police, Pan was in an extramarital relationship with the girl's mother, who is his cousin. He wanted to move elsewhere with her but considered the child an obstacle to the plan and decided to get rid of her, Kumar said.
Pan took the girl to the nullah on a pretext and pushed her to her death on November 11, the officer said.Police detained Pan for questioning on Friday after suspecting his involvement. He initially tried to mislead investigators by claiming that he had dropped the girl home before leaving for the market, Kumar said.
Pan later broke down during questioning and confessed to the crime, according to the officer. Police recovered the child's body from the nullah near the village and sent it for a post-mortem examination.Police subsequently arrested Pan and sent him to judicial custody, while the girl's body was recovered nearly three days after she went missing from the village.- Ends