A civil contractor in Raiganj, apparently beset with financial problems and planning his suicide, allegedly strangulated his five-year-old daughter to death on Tuesday evening.

Police arrested accused Arup Sen, in his mid-40s, and a resident of Sudarshanpur area in the town.

Sources said that Sen reached the emergency wing of the Raiganj Government Medical College & Hospital (RGMCH) hospital with his seemingly unconscious daughter, Aditi, on Tuesday evening. When the doctors examined her, they pronounced her dead.

Sen then tried to take the girl’s body, but was stopped by doctors and other staff, who then informed police. A team of Raiganj policemen rushed to the spot.

“As we spoke to the father, he broke down and admitted he had strangulated his daughter. He claimed he was in financial trouble and had debts he couldn’t repay, which is why he planned to commit suicide,” said a police officer.

Sen claimed that he feared that after his suicide, his other family members would neglect his daughter, which is why he killed her, the police source added. "We are checking out the veracity of his claim,” said the officer.

Sen has a wife and two sons who are older than his deceased daughter.

On Wednesday, he was produced in a local court which sent him in judicial custody for 14 days.

Collision death

Ranjit Barman,23, a dump truck driver, died after his vehicle collided with a truck in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday. Police sources said a truck with foodgrains was headed towards Siliguri from Mainaguri on the NH27, but as it reached Gosala More, one of its tyres got punctured and its driver pulled the brakes. A dump truck, coming behind the truck, lost control and rammed into the truck's rear. Barman, at the wheel of the dump truck, was injured and rushed to the Jalpaiguri government hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.