Delhi: Father chops off daughter's ear, claims 'ghost' asked him to do so

New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a man allegedly chopped off his three-year-old daughter's ears and later claimed that a "ghost" threatened him to do so.

The accused, identified as 35-year-old Amrit Bahadur, has been arrested.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday at GTB Enclave in Delhi.

As per Bahadur's family, he has been "mentally disturbed" since the death of his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter a few months ago.

Since then, he has been having hallucinations about a "ghost" who threatened to take away his second child as well.

"Bahadur works in an unorganised sector as a cleaner. He came to his house at around 1:30 am and he was drunk. He was having hallucinations. He felt that something is there that's compelling him to do this act and if he does not do that, he may lose his daughter. Therefore, he said that he chopped off the girl's ear. In the meantime, the family woke up and called up the neighbours who informed the police and the girl was rescued," DCP (Shahdra) Nupur Prasad told ANI.

The girl’s mother tried to stop her husband but was asked to leave.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times quoted a senior police officer as saying: “He reportedly thrashed his wife and asked her to leave the house. He took his wife and five other children to the terrace and locked the door. He then returned to further torture his daughter.”

After returning, Bahadur chopped off the girl’s second ear.

“He said the ghost was unhappy with the sacrifice so he asked for the girl’s blood from her neck. When the girl tried to run away he pinned her down. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother alerted the neighbours. Hearing them shout for help, the neighbours made a PCR call and a team reached Bahadur’s house. Before he could slit the girl’s neck, he was caught,” a senior police officer said.

“The neighbours had called us and reported a brawl. We were shocked to find out that the father had mercilessly slashed his daughter’s ears,” he added.

The girl was admitted to AIIMS Hospital and is stable now.

Bahadur's elder brother had passed away seven years ago.

After his brother's death, he had married his sister-in-law, who had four children.

(With Agency inputs)