KEY POINTS
- Cops launched an investigation after recovering the 2-year-old’s body from a lake
- The father confessed to smothering his daughter by holding her against his chest
- He had been unemployed for six months and also lost money in bitcoin business
A 45-year-old unemployed engineer allegedly killed his toddler daughter because he had no money to feed her after undergoing financial losses.
Police in Bengaluru city, India’s leading tech capital located in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, launched an investigation after the 2-year-old child’s body was found in the lake near a village located about 40 miles from the city, NDTV reported.
The body was recovered Saturday night after locals alerted the cops as they grew suspicious over a blue vehicle that had been parked by the lake.
Cops arrested the father, identified as Rahul Parmar, who also allegedly tried to end his life but failed, according to the Times of India.
The accused came from the western Indian state of Gujarat to Bengaluru to work as an engineer. Parmar told cops that he held his daughter tight against his chest and smothered her to death, as per the outlet.
The accused and his daughter went missing on Nov. 15 after Parmar took her out on the pretext of taking her to school. The father, plagued by thoughts of suicide, reportedly drove around the city with his daughter in the backseat.
At some point, the child turned cranky as she was hungry when Parmar bought her some biscuits and played with her in the car before smothering her, according to India.com. The father then attempted suicide by jumping into the lake but did not drown.
Cops told NDTV that Parmar had been unemployed for the last six months and incurred a financial loss in his bitcoin business. He allegedly had also filed a complaint about a theft of jewels that belongs to his wife, Bhavya, from their house. It was later found that Parmar himself was behind the robbery.
After learning that he registered a fake case, the cops reportedly warned the man not to come to the police station ever again.
Police said Parmar may have committed the crime and attempted suicide in fear that his future would involve money lenders hounding him and potential police action due to the fake theft complaint.
The crime comes as tech professionals are reeling from a wave of layoffs at leading companies. From Elon Musk firing half of the 7,500 staff at Twitter to major companies like Amazon, HP and Meta downsizing their workforce, the number of people losing their jobs runs into thousands. India’s tech capital Bengaluru has also had its fair share of job cuts, with the IT industry being the hardest hit. In last year alone, at least 20,000 Bangalore tech employees were laid off after the COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive economic downturn.
