Bengaluru police produced a 15-year-old girl before a Child Welfare Committee and sent her to the Government Children's Home after her father was killed when he got into a scuffle with her on Thursday morning. Her father, a 46-year-old man, died after he was fatally injured by his daughter at their apartment in Mico Layout in the city.
Police officials told TNM that the teen stated she was trying to protect herself from her father who came at her with a pair of scissors. Police sources say that if it is found to be an act of self defense, they will invoke Section 100 of the Indian Penal Code (when the right of private defence of the body extends to causing death).
"She has not been arrested and a special juvenile police team will take her statement. We have registered the case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) [of the IPC] but if the investigation proves that she was defending herself, the relevant sections will be added. But at the moment, the forensic report is yet to come," Joshi Srinath Mahadev, DCP (Southeast) told TNM.
The teen will be housed in the children home until the investigation is completed, the DCP said.
The father was formerly a software engineer who quit his job. His wife passed away around nine years ago and he lived with his 15-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son in Bengaluru. Police sources said he frequently indulged in alcohol and allegedly harassed his children.
On Wednesday night, he was in an inebriated state and playing the keyboard. This led to a confrontation between the daughter and the father which resulted in the latter's death.
Deccan Herald reported that the father stopped enrolling his daughter in school after Class 1 and did not enroll his son in school. However, the two children were known for their skills to quickly solve mathematics problems since they were taught by the father, who was known for his prowess in the subject. He got his children enrolled in open schooling and told acquaintances that he will not register his children in schools, Times of India reported.
But though she was not attending school, his daughter was planning to prepare for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam on merit and had borrowed books to study for it. She was studying for the exams at night when she was allegedly attacked by her father.