Kupwara, Oct 2: In apparently a first incident of its kind, police Tuesday charged a man with killing his minor daughter here for want of ex-gratia relief and a job. With his arrest, the cops claimed to have solved the year-old case.
 Muhammad Shafi Malik of Ticker has been arrested on charges of murdering his five-year-old daughter Asra Shafi on March 26 last year. The throat-slit body of victim was found, just 50 yards away from her house, on that day.
 Following the incident, police had registered a case under FIR No- 64/2011 U/S 302 in Police Station Kupwara and started investigation.
 Police said the motive behind the heinous crime perpetrated by father was to “grab the government sponsored ex-gratia relief and a job.” “We have arrested victim’s father on charges of murdering his own minor daughter. He had committed the heinous crime with an intention to grab the ex-gratia relief from the government,” said Sajad Khaliq, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kupwara. “We have enough evidence and we can prove the same.”
 The accused, the police alleged, mercilessly slit the throat of his daughter on the fateful evening of March 26 last year. He later informed the police about the murder of his daughter. The accused had taken the axe under Pheran (traditional Kashmiri gown) and slit the throat of his daughter.”
 The heart-rendering incident had triggered shock and awe in the district and also triggered protests for days The accused Muhammad Shafi Malik is a Panch in Ticker Village.
 Police had also recovered weapon of assault (axe) used by the accused, sources said.
 “He had kept his wife and other family members in dark on the grave issue. On the fateful evening, he lured his daughter for candies and murdered her just 50 meters away from the house. Sometime later, he raised an alarm screaming that his daughter has been murdered,” police sources said.
 They said that the accused confessed to the crime after sustained interrogation.
 Sensing trouble, the accused in August this year had left pursuing his ex-gratia case in the office of Deputy Commissioner Kupwara. “Soon after the incident, he vigorously started pursuing the
 relief case. In August, however, he left pursuing the case as he suspected that police was increasingly watching his activities,” sources said.
 The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) had also taken a serious note of the slow police investigations and directed police to intensify the investigations and book the accused.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 2 Oct 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 2 Oct 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 3 Oct 2012 00:00:00 IST