The man had committed the crime as he was deep in debt, the police said. (Representational image)
Police probing the death of a minor girl in Kochi said on Monday that her father, arrested from Karnataka on April 18 nearly a month after the incident, had "confessed" to killing her and then planning to do so himself as he did not want her to be left abandoned after his death.
Kochi city police commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam said the 13-year-old girl's father Sanu Mohan had confessed to the investigating team that he had killed his daughter and there was no third party involvement.
Mohan said he committed the crime as he was deep in debt and the tension due to this was prima facie the motive behind the murder, the commissioner told reporters.
However, thorough probe was necessary to find out the real motive behind the killing, he said.
Both Mohan and his daughter Vaiga had gone missing from their flat here since the night of March 20.
He had earlier sent his wife to a relative's home in the city.
Two days later, Vaiga was found dead in Muttar river near Manjummel here but Mohan disappeared from the scene.
"What he said is he did not want the girl to be abandoned after he is gone.
First he wanted to eliminate her and then eliminate himself. The second step did not happen. We want to collect its evidence," the Commissioner said.
Mohan's arrest has been recorded, he said.
Mr Chakilam said they would seek his custody from the court for further questioning.
He said that Mohan, who had visited at least three states after the incident, had tried to remove to the maximum, traces of his disappearance.
"Despite all his planning and efforts to remove all the traces, we ultimately succeeded in locating him", he said.
Asked about the chemical examination finding the presence of alcohol in Vaiga's body, the police official said "we have to question him intensely" to collect evidence.
Police had found his car abandoned in Coimbatore.
The commissioner hailed the probe carried out by a team under Thrikkakara Assistant Police Commissioner R Sreekumar in unveiling the mystery behind the killing of the minor girl.
Police had been on the look out for Mohan since his mysterious disappearance following the incident.
A team had gone to Kollur, Mukambika on Saturday after he was spotted in a hotel there.
Mohan, who had left Kochi in his car, had stayed in a hotel in Kollur. CCTV footage had shown his presence in the town.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)