Delhi: Man chops off daughter’s ears

New Delhi: A 35-year-old man allegedly chopped off his three-year-old daughter’s ears, in the early hours on Thursday, while hallucinating about a ghost trying to take her away.

The family of the accused, Amrit Bahadur, told the police that he had been mentally disturbed ever since his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter died a couple of months ago. He had since been having hallucinations about a “ghost” trying to take away his elder child. According to police, on Thursday, Bahadur returned home in an inebriated condition and went to the room where his daughter, Bina, was sleeping.

He was apparently seeing a “ghost” who had threatened to take away his elder daughter.

During questioning, Bahadur told the police that the ghost had asked him to make his daughter cry. So he poured water over the sleeping child. When she started crying, the ghost apparently asked him to cut off his daughter’s ears. He obeyed and chopped off a small portion of her ear. He said the ghost then demanded that both the ears be cut off.

Bahadur told police that he did what the ghost asked him to do and chopped off his daughter’s ears. But the ghost further asked him to spill more blood and Bahadur decided to slit his daughter’s throat. However, before he could do that, the other family members woke up hearing the daughter’s cries. They stopped him before he could kill her.

Hearing noises from their house, their neighbours alerted the police and Bahadur was arrested from the spot.

The police suspect that Bahadur might be suffering from some mental ailment since he has been talking about seeing ghosts. He claimed that he did what he was instructed to do by the “ghost” for his family’s happiness.

The child was rushed to GTB Hospital by her family.