Bangalore: July 26, 2013 DHNS

It’s another case of a young life snuffed out at the hands of those who were supposed to take care of her.

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly beaten to death by her father here on Thursday. Reason: The Class II student couldn’t memorise her lessons.

The West division police arrested Sathyanarayana Singh after he confessed to have beaten his daughter, Neha Singh, in a fit of rage for not studying properly.

Police sources said he had hit the girl with a rolling pin.  Neha was the accused’s daughter from his first marriage.

Sathyanarayana, however, tried to shift the blame on a stranger. He claimed that somebody beat up Neha when she went to a nearby shop and that she collapsed on returning home. Sathyanarayana said Neha died by the time she was rushed to hospital.

The police were, however, alerted by a neighbour who suspected foul play.

“The circumstances under which the girl was found dead were mysterious. One of their neighbours alerted us. We grew suspicious after coming to know of the man’s background. He was accused of killing his first wife for dowry. The girl was his daughter from the first marriage. He said he beat the girl with a cane and she collapsed thereafter.

We have booked him for murder,” said Duggappa, ACP (Kengeri Gate sub-division). The body, which bore several injury marks, was taken to Victoria Hospital for autopsy.Sathyanarayana was married to Asha Singh, who died in 2006. Her parents Raghunath and Vasantha Singh, residents of Shimoga, had alleged dowry death. Sathyanarayana was subsequently arrested. After spending around six months in prison, he was acquitted.

Neha was only 10 months old then. Asha’s parents took her to Shimoga. After being released from prison, Sathyanarayana started a plastic mould factory in Timber Yard and married again. He was living with his mother Padma Bai, second wife and a one-and-a-half-year-old son from the second marriage.

Sathyanarayana had not visited Neha even once in the past seven years. In May, he suddenly turned up at Shimoga, claiming custody of his daughter. Raghunath told Deccan Herald that Sathyanarayana promised to take good care of the child. “We did not relent. He said as he had not divorced my daughter, he was the rightful custodian of the girl.

We unwillingly sent her. The girl could not adjust there. She had never seen her father before. She complained that her father and grandmother were harassing her and pleaded us to take her back. We thought that she would eventually adjust. But he killed her, like my daughter. He is a demon,” Raghunath said.  In his statement to the police, Sathyanarayana said when he asked Neha, a class II student at SGM school in Avalahalli, some questions from her notes, she could not answer. He asked Neha to learn her lessons properly. The family left for a temple in the afternoon, leaving her alone at home to study. He claimed to have found Neha asleep on returning home. An enraged Sathyanarayana then beat her up with a baton.

D Rajappa, DCP (West), told  that the Byatarayanapura police have registered a case of murder and arrested Sathyanarayana. The police are investigating into the role of Padma Bai and his second wife, he added.