18-month-old killed, thrown into pond

A 24-year-old man allegedly strangled his year-and-half-old sister and threw her body into a pond in Shimla Bazar area of Sarishabari in Jamalpur early Monday.

Deceased Prapti was the daughter of Paritosh Ghosh and Shilpi Rani Ghosh. The couple had two sons and two daughters and Prapti was the youngest.

Prapti was asleep in the same room as her parents Sunday night while her elder brother Indrajit Ghosh, 24, slept in another room.

When Shilpi woke up around 2:00am, she could not find Prapti. The family members searched for her and eventually called Sarishabari police.

The police went to the house around 4:00am and detained Indrajit for questioning.

During interrogation yesterday afternoon, Indrajit told police that he had killed his sister. He said he took sleeping Prapti from her bed around 1:00am, strangled her, and then dumped the body into a nearby pond, Tauhidur Rahman, an inspector of Sarishabari Police Station, quoted Indrajit as saying.

Indrajit wanted to save the possible expenditure of a sister's marriage, Tauhidur said, quoting Indrajit.

Police recovered the girl's body around 3:00pm and sent it to Jamalpur General Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Police also arrested Indrajit's uncle-in-law Ananda Kumar Mahatma at his home in connection with aiding and abetting the murder, the inspector said.