NIZAMABAD : Nizamabad police on Monday said a six-year-old girl, whose body was found in the Nizamsagar canal, was killed by her father so that he could qualify to contest gram panchayat elections in his native village of Kerur, Mukhed taluka, Nanded district, Maharashtra.
The accused, Panduranga Kondamangale, was arrested along with Shinde Ganesh, the village sarpanch. The bike allegedly used in the crime was seized.
According to the investigation, Panduranga, who runs a salon and has three children, was planning to contest the upcoming gram panchayat elections. However, under the two-child norm, aspirants with more than two children are deemed ineligible to contest.
Nizamabad Police Commissioner P Sai Chaitanya said Panduranga explored alternatives, including the possibility of giving his daughter, Prachi, up for adoption and altering her birth records by approaching officials at the Pune Municipal Corporation. When these attempts failed, he planned to portray Prachi as missing.
On the pretext of taking her on a trip to Nizamabad, Panduranga allegedly took the child on a motorcycle and threw her into the Nizamsagar canal.
The girl’s body was found on January 29 in the canal near the ARP camp, within Yadapally police station limits in Nizamabad district, and it was shifted to the mortuary at the Government General Hospital, Nizamabad.
The police commissioner said the child’s identity was initially unknown. Three special teams were formed, and a photograph of the girl was circulated on social media and WhatsApp groups. A police constable shared the image as his WhatsApp status, which was seen by relatives in Mukhed, who identified her as Prachi Kondamangale of Kerur village.
Further investigation is under way, police said.