Father kills girl over ‘friendship’ with boy

NEW DELHI: In a suspected case of honour killing, a 40-year-old man allegedly hacked his 13-year-old daughter to death on Wednesday because he was allegedly enraged over her friendship with a man who runs a mobile shop in their neighbourhood in east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar, police said.

The body of the girl was found dumped near a drain at Tronica City area of Loni in Ghaziabad on Friday, two days after she was reported missing from her Karawal Nagar house.

Police said the girl’s father said he had discovered her body, almost 10 kilometres away from his home, even as the Karawal Nagar police, who had registered her kidnapping case, had failed make any headway in the case.

AK Singla, deputy commissioner of police (northeast), said the girl’s father, Sudesh Kumar, was arrested on Saturday after they identified that the motorcycle on which the girl was seen riding pillion in CCTV cameras belonged to him. The helmet that the man, who was riding the motorcycle, matched with Kumar’s helmet that the police found in his home.

“Kumar was taken into custody and interrogated. Kumar confessed to the crime and we arrested him,” said Singla, adding Kumar runs a pastry shop.

During the interrogation, Singla said, Kumar revealed that his daughter befriended a mobile shop owner in their neighbourhood.

Around a year ago, Kumar had seen his daughter with the man and asked her to stay away from him.

“Despite Kumar’s warnings, his daughter continued meeting the man. Kumar told police that he lost his cool when he saw his daughter with the man on Tuesday,” said DCP Singla.

On Wednesday, Singla said, the girl left home, saying she was going to buy momos. Kumar suspected that she was going to meet her friend. He took a knife, followed his daughter and found her with the man. Seeing Kumar, the man fled leaving the girl alone.

“Kumar took her to an isolated place in Tronica City on his bike and slit her throat multiple times with the knife. He stabbed her in her face,” said an officer. After killing his daughter, Kumar dumped the knife and his clothes with blood stains in the drain.

“He returned home and the family members filed a missing complaint,” said the officer, adding they have recovered the knife and the clothes from the drain.