Father of 3 kills daughter to meet 2-child norm for contesting Maharashtra panchayat polls; ex-sarpanch helped plot murder

HYDERABAD: Telangana police have arrested a man from Maharashtra for murdering one of his three children so that he would be eligible to contest the gram panchayat election. Those with more than two children are barred from contesting local body elections in Maharashtra.

Pandurang Kondamangale, a resident of Kerur village in Nanded, who was arrested on Monday, has been accused of drowning his six-year-old daughter, Prachi, in the Nizamsagar canal in Nizamabad on Jan 29. "Pandurang first had twin daughters, including Prachi," a police officer told TOI. "Later, he had a son too. He decided to kill Prachi to realise his political ambitions."


Officials also arrested the present sarpanch of Kerur, Ganesh Shinde, for allegedly helping Pandurang plan the murder.

The killing came to light after police officers from Nizamabad's Bodhan rural police station started investigating the suspicious death of an unknown girl, whose body was found in the Nizamsagar canal. To identify the girl, a constable uploaded a photograph of the body as his status message on WhatsApp and asked people to share leads. The image was also shared with other police stations.

Within a few hours police officers from Mukhed taluk in Maharashtra contacted their counterparts in Bodhan and identified the girl as Prachi, barber Pandurang's daughter, who had been missing for a few days. Bodhan police officials then got in touch with Pandurang and found that he was giving inconsistent replies to many of their queries.

Suspecting that Pandurang had killed his daughter, police officials tracked his mobile phone's tower locations and found out that he had brought Prachi to Telangana. During interrogation, he allegedly cracked and confessed to killing Prachi.

Officials alleged that Ganesh encouraged Pandurang to contest the panchayat elections, due in about six months. However, both realised that Pandurang would be ineligible as a candidate as he had three children.

Nizamabad police commissioner P Sai Chaitanya said the duo initially tried to give the girl up for adoption to couples wanting children. "When the attempt failed, they allegedly conspired to kill Prachi. On Jan 29, Pandurang came to Nizamsagar canal with Prachi and pushed her into the water before returning to his village," Sai Chaitanya said.