Man kills 18-month-old daughter over 'dark skin'

A man allegedly poised his 18-month-old daughter to death due to her “dark skin” in Andhra Pradesh state of India.

The accused father identified as Mahesh fed poisoned prasadam (Hindu religious offering) to his daughter Akshaya and told his wife Shravani that the baby died of seizures, according to an Indian media outlet.

The local police arrested the father and filed a first information report against him for poisoning his daughter to death.

Police said that the suspect’s wife Shravani had also accused her husband and in-laws of torturing her over giving birth to a baby with a dark complexion.

According to Shravani’s statement, she found the 18-months-old unconscious with a bleeding nose on March 31.

The doctors at the Karempudi hospital declared Akshaya dead after she was moved to the medical care facility following her deteriorated condition.

After killing his daughter, the accused asked Shravani to lie about the cause of their daughter’s death and buried the body of the baby without an investigation.

However, Shravani’s mother approached the local panchayat (jirga) after she was suspicious of the girl’s death.

Later, the mother of the killed baby revealed the details of the abuse at the hands of her husband to her relatives and filed a complaint at the local police station.

She also alleged that Mahesh had previously attempted to kill his baby daughter several times.

According to Shravani, Mahesh had attempted to kill their daughter by throwing her against the wall and on one occasion tried to drown her in a tub of water.