Bhubaneswar, Aug. 17: In a rare incident of honour killing, a stepfather allegedly killed his 16-year-old daughter with a blunt weapon in the Canal Road area of Palasuni here.

Mancheswar police arrested the accused father, who was sent to jail today after his bail was rejected by a local court. The body of Banaja Bihari Mallick, who had just appeared for her Standard X examination, was found by local residents when her stepfather Pabitra Mohapatra a painter, was trying to dispose it of on the banks of the nearby canal.

Sources said Pabitra killed the girl by thrashing her head with a spade. Arun Behera, a neighbour, said that he had heard Pabitra shouting at his daughter in the evening.

“He sounded like he was drunk. After sometime the shouting stopped. Later we found him trying to dump the girl’s body in the canal,” said Behera.

The girl’s mother, Binodini Mallick, who is an Anganwadi worker, said that she had tried to stop her husband, but in vain. According to Binodini, her daughter was staying with her uncle at Anandpur in Keonjhar and had come to stay with them only recently.

“She was getting close to a local youth who had a criminal background. Despite her father trying to convince her, she refused to mend her ways,” said Binodini.

Last evening, Pabitra saw the girl with the boy in their house. He flew into a rage and attacked the girl with a spade while her boyfriend fled the spot. “He was in such a violent mood that I did not dare to go near him,” said the mother.

The police, who arrived at the spot on being informed by the neighbours, rushed the girl to a hospital. Doctors, however, declared her brought dead.

The police later detained the girl’s mother and stepfather. While mother Binodini was later allowed to go, father Pabitra, who admitted to committing the crime, was booked under Section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code. The police, however, denied that Pabitra was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the act.