Tatanagar GRP office on Wednesday. (Animesh Sengupta)

The railway police on Wednesday arrested a 53-year-old man and his brother for the murder of a 17-year-old in March.

According to the police, Harendra Singh and his brother Sakendra murdered the former’s daughter Pooja and then dumped her body near the railway tracks at Kanhu Mahali village in Chakulia, all because the teenager was involved in a relationship with a boy from another caste.

An enraged Harendra, who feared Pooja would elope with 20-year-old Tapas Palai, killed the girl by smashing her head against a wall on the night of March 31, 2012.

On April 1, Pooja’s body was found lying on the railway tracks at Kanhu Mahali village, about 6km from Chakuia where she stayed and 85km from Jamshedpur. The victim had a deep wound on her head, and since there was no blood at the spot, it was obvious that she had been killed somewhere else and dumped there.

The railway police initially arrested Tapas’s elder brother Rajkishore and his friend Amarnath Bari on suspicion of being involved in the murder, but investigations led them to the victim’s father and uncle.

Both accused were on Wednesday brought to the GRP station at Tatanagar prior to their remand to judicial custody.

GRP Chakulia sub-inspector Ram Chandra Ram said Harendra rammed his daughter’s head against a wall so hard that she died on the spot on March 31. Later, Harendra and Sakendra, both bamboo traders, ferried the body in a vehicle to the tracks at Kanhu Mahali, and dumped it there.

Ram, the investigating officer of the case, said Harendra killed Pooja, an intermediate student, as he thought she was planning to elope that night.

The sub-inspector said after coming to know about the affair, Harendra initially tried to talk his daughter out of it. However, when she refused to budge, he killed her.

Ram said on April 1, when Pooja’s body was found on the railway tracks, Tapas’ brother Rajkishore and his friend Amernath had seen the two brothers at the spot.

“Rajkishore had even told his family about seeing the two at Kanhu Mahali, but Harendra later requested him not to speak about it. But soon afterwards, the victim’s father told the railway police that his daughter had been killed by Rajkishore and Amarnath. As the allegation was made by the father, we were left with no option but to arrest Rajkishore and Amarnath, who were, however, granted bail in a few days,” said the sub-inspector.

In their statement before a magistrate, the duo had said they had seen both Harendra and Sakendra at the spot where the body was found. “Later we collected more evidence against Harendra and his brother, and prayed the court to issue an arrest warrant against them,” Ram said.

Harendra, however, denied killing his daughter.

“Why should I kill my own child? The police are falsely implicating me and my brother,” he said.