Father of 6 girls kills 4-day-old daughter

A 32-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing his four-day-old baby girl, his sixth daughter, in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat as he wanted a son, police said on Monday, in a state where female infanticide is common and reflected in its skewed sex ratio.

The police in Moti Masang village under Dehgam taluka arrested Vishnu Rathod after a complaint was filed by his father-in-law Jaswant Jetsinh.

“It was the sixth daughter for 30-year-old Vimla and Vishnu. Married for about 10 years, the couple has other five daughters,’’ a police official said on the condition of anonymity.

Jetsinh said in his complaint that Vishnu stabbed the newborn on Sunday evening soon after he saw her for the first time while visiting Vimla, who was at his house for the delivery.

Vimla was asleep when Vishnu stabbed the baby and woke up after hearing her cries, police officials said. Vishnu tried to run away but his in-laws caught him and handed him to the police, they added.

There are 919 females against 1,000 males in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to government think tank NITI Aayog’s report earlier this year, the sex ratio at birth of 848 in 2014-16 was one of the lowest ever recorded by Gujarat since 2005-07 when the number of girls born was 891 per 1,000 boys.

AHMEDABAD: