Bhubaneswar, Jan. 22: A drunken man doused his five-year-old son in kerosene and burnt him alive last evening for defying his order to get back to his books.

Narendra had stood his ground and continued arguing even after Rasananda Patra, 38, lit a match, perhaps unable to believe that his father would actually carry out his threat.

The boy was declared dead in hospital. A remorseful Rasananda was arrested shortly afterwards at his home in Sadu Singh Hating in Orissa’s Keonjhar district.

“Never in my wildest nightmare had I imagined that my son would die at my hands. It was not my intention to kill Naru,” the father wailed.

Inspector Krushna Chandra Parida said: “We have lodged a case under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sent the accused to jail. He was drunk when the incident took place.”

Kasturi Mohapatra, vice-president of the Indian Council for Child Development, said: “Children have often been victims of their parents’ ambitions. Parents must allow their offspring to grow up naturally without imposing their wishes on them.”

The police said Rasananda, who has five children, had flown into a rage when he returned home from work to find Narendra and his elder brother Balabhadra, 9, playing instead of studying.

Rasananda scolded the boys and asked them to start studying, and slapped them when the children began arguing. The slap silenced Balabhadra but not the younger boy. Their mother Pratima had stepped out of home to fetch water.

Rasananda poured kerosene over the two boys, pulled out a matchbox, lit a stick and threatened to set them on fire. Balabhadra kept quiet but Narendra continued to stay defiant. Rasananda says he did not know what he was doing when he tossed the burning matchstick at Narendra.

As the boy’s pullover caught fire, Rasananda came back to his senses and tried to put the flames out, burning his right palm. Pratima, who had returned by then, poured buckets of water over Narendra but the boy collapsed to the floor.