In a shocking incident, a man strangled his two-year-old daughter and handed over the body to his elder daughter in a village here. The accused has been arrested after his wife, who works at a brick kiln at Baijnathpur, lodged a complaint with the police. The accused was thrashed by the local people before being handed over to the police.

According to the police reports, the accused Ramesh, an alcoholic, used to beat his wife Indu. She left him to stay with her father, who works at a brick kiln at Baijnathpur. She took her three children -- Kajal, 8, Prince, 5, and Shreya, 2, -- and was working at the brick kiln. Kajal was unwell on Sunday and when Ramesh got to know, he came and took the three children with him on a motorcycle.

He returned on Monday with Kajal carrying the body of Shreya. The villagers caught and thrashed Ramesh and handed him over to police after Kajal told them that he had strangled Shreya. Kajal told police that Ramesh took them to several places on motorcycle, and then to an orchard to sleep at night.

Ramesh strangulated Shreya using the scarf of Kajal who woke up on hearing her cries. Kajal also told police that Ramesh used to say that Shreya is not his daughter. SHO Chiluatal, Neeraj Kumar, said, "The accused Ramesh has been arrested and booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) IPC and the body has been sent for post mortem."