Father arrested for attempting to bury daughter alive in Tripura

In a bizarre incident, a father was arrested allegedly for trying to bury his daughter alive in Tripura's Bakshanagar area on Friday.

The incident was reported from the border village of Putia in the state's Sepahijal District.

According to the police, 30-year-old Abdul Hossain, a father of two daughters, had always cursed his Chotna Begum for giving birth to girl child and was trying to get rid of her.

On Friday, when Chotna Begum was away for work, Abdul, who was in an intoxicated state, tried to bury his elder daughter Rokshana Khatun, a student of class two, in his backyard, after tying her hands and mouth.

However, Chotna Begum returned home and did not find the child, she smelled something fishy and set off an alarm and started searching for her daughter along with her neighours.

The neighours recovered the child from a deep covered pit. She had been buried right up to her throat and her head was covered by a bamboo basket.

Abdul has since been arrested on a charge of an attempt to murder under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"For the last one year, he (Abdul) has been torturing the child, and as she run away in fear. So, he had done this (act of burying her alive). The girl's name is Ruksana Khatun. The public detained him and handed him over to us. His name is Abdul Hossain and we booked him under IPC 307," said police sub-inspector Sudhangshu Bikash Sarkar.

The child confirmed that her father had been torturing her every day and that she was punished as she had dropped water inside the room.

"My father had buried me because I had poured water. He hits me every day but my mother never punishes me. He punished me for dropping water," said Ruksana.

Abdul said he had no intention to kill his daughter and was just trying to discipline her so that that child lends a helping hand to her mother.

"The incident is of around 8 a.m. and in our courtyard. I did not tie her hand or mouth, and my wife has seen this, and went for MGNREGA work. I told her that I would leave her after sometime, and was doing this to scare her so that she is afraid and helps her mother. Believe me, I wanted to scare her," said Abdul.

Meantime, though the mother did not want to speak much against her husband, but said he was a habitual drunkard.