A 43-year-old man of Odisha's Ganjam district was arrested for allegedly strangling his teen-aged daughter to death in a case of suspected honour killing, police said on Thursday.
The man was against her relationship with someone who he thought belonged to a different caste.
The 17-year-old girl's body was found on September 19 near Gunduribadi village under Sorada police station limits. After it was identified, her father lodged an FIR that she was killed by unidentified men.
However, he confessed during questioning that he himself strangled her to death as she was out of home for some days. He was arrested on Tuesday, Inspector-in-charge of Sorada police station, Pravat Sahoo, said.
The girl had gone missing from her Gunduribadi village home on August 25 and her father surmised that she eloped with someone belonging to a different caste than the one they come from.
The father did not lodge any missing diary at that time.
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The girl who belonged to other backward caste telephoned her father after a few days but he told her that he would not allow her back in the house, Sahoo said.
On September 15, she returned to her uncle's house in a neighbouring village. Her uncle invited her father and tried to resolve the matter on September 18.
Both her father and uncle asked her repeatedly to disclose the identity of the person she had eloped with but she refused to reveal anyting. After much persuasion by her uncle, her father agreed to take her back home.
During an altercation while returning home, the father beat her up, strangled her to death and dumped the body in a bush by the National Highway 59.
Initially, the accused denied having committed the crime, but during intensive interrogation, he confessed he killed his daughter, the IIC said.