Shocking news has emerged from Maharashtra's Nanded district after a father killed his daughter to contest the Maharashtra Panchayat elections, which are scheduled in June this year. 28-year-old Pandurang Kondmangale is accused of fathomable.
Kondmangale is a barber by profession and runs a barber shop in Kerur village. The 28-year-old worries about his qualification to fight for the rural local body polls. He felt he, too, had it in him to become the sarpanch of his village, but according to Maharashtra’s Panchayat Raj Act, people with more than two children cannot contest rural local body elections.
Kondmangale has three children - 3-year-old son and 6-year-old twin daughters. He sought and advice from the current sarpanch Ganesh Shinde of the village.
Nizamabad Commission of Police, Sau Chaitanya, told The Indian Express that both the current sarpanch of the village and Kondmangale decided to get rid of one of his twin daughters, Prachi. According to Chaitanya, the accused first put her daughter up for adoption, but failed as she would still be registered as his child in the birth certificate, which was issued six years ago.
He later planned to abandon her, but even that plan of his failed, as he thought, what if she came back to the village? Later, the current sarpanch of the village and Kondmangale decided to kill the child and cooked an accident story.
Chaitanya said, “Kondmangle allegedly took Prachi for a trip to Nizamabad, just a few kilometres away from his village.” “No one suspected anything because crossing the border is common.” He took the girl on a bike to Nizamsagar Canal in Nizamabad district. He allegedly pushed her into the canal and fled the scene.
Also Read | Mumbai Tragedy: Two Labourers Suffocate Inside a Deep Drain Near Mega Mall in Goregaon; One Dead.
According to the investigation, farmers working in nearby fields heard something plunge into the water and rushed there to find the girl’s lifeless body floating in the canal. Local police were informed and the body was taken out of the canal.
Police took out pictures of her face and shared them on social media, including in newspapers. "Someone from the Maharashtra village identified Prachi when they saw her photo as the display picture on the WhatsApp number of one of the police personnel,” said Chaitanya.
The villager who identified Prachi reached local police in Telangana, which already had formed three teams to nabbed the accused. One of the police team reached the village in Maharashtra's Nanded and interrogated the father.
At first, he said that his daughter was undergoing treatment at a faraway health centre, but he could not explain who was taking care of her. “When pushed to a corner, he revealed that he had killed the child,” Chaitanya said. According to The Indian Express report, Kondmangle has been booked under sections of murder and criminal conspiracy, and the current sarpanch has been booked as a co-conspirator.