Police at the spot in Malda where the body was buried. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Oct. 10: A one-and-a-half-year-old girl was battered to death allegedly by her father who was in a drunken stupor last night.

Uttam Sarkar fled Bhagalpur village, 25km from here, after burying the body of his daughter on the banks of the Bhagirathi. His wife Shefali said Uttam was drunk when he killed the baby.

The couple had a fight and the 47-year-old man had picked up a bamboo from the courtyard and was about to bring it down on his wife. “But I moved aside and the bamboo fell on little Piya who was sitting beside me,” said Shefali.

This morning police exhumed the body that was buried 2km from the residence, in the presence of a deputy magistrate. It has been sent to Malda district hospital for post-mortem.

Uttam is a day labourer and the couple had two daughters. Four-year-old Bunu is the elder one. Shefali said her husband was angry because she was “pestering” him to take her and the children to the village fair.

“When the bamboo fell on my little daughter, she at first wailed and then suddenly became very quiet. My husband then seized her and started running. Then it struck me that she was probably dead and he was fleeing with the body,” said Shefali.

The Sarkars have not filed any police complaint against Uttam. But a neighbour did.

Dhiren Sarkar, who lives next door, wrote in the complaint: “After killing his daughter, Uttam buried her body and fled.”

The police believe that the killing was not intentional. “We know that the family is poor. That may have been one of the reasons for the frequent fights between the husband and wife. But we are trying to arrest Uttam. We can get to know what actually happened only after interrogating him and going through the post- mortem report. But primary investigations have revealed that he had no intention to kill the child,” said Satyajit Banerjee, the police chief of Malda district.

The police also said Shefali was trying to protect her husband. “She has refused to file any complaint against him,” said an officer. The blood-stained bamboo was recovered by the police from Uttam’s house.

Neighbours said they had heard the couple fighting right from the evening.

“When we heard Uttam reaching for the bamboo and the wail of the baby, we rushed to his house. But by then he had fled. Shefali was crying. It took us about 15 minutes to realise what happened,” said Dhiren.

The police had come last night, but went back after they could not trace Uttam. Some villagers had seen him digging up the bank. The police came back this morning to identify the spot where the body was buried and exhume it.