North Lakhimpur (Assam)

Investigators are searching for a woman who was accompanying a man accused of beheading his six-year-old daughter inside a train in Assam's Lakhimpur district, officials said on Saturday.

The accused, a resident of the Gogamukh area, was arrested shortly after the incident on Friday at Silanibari railway station with the help of local people. The child’s body was recovered from the train coach.

According to a Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson, the man allegedly attacked the girl with a sharp weapon during the journey, severing her head.

Eyewitnesses said the child had been asking her father to buy snacks moments before the assault.

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Police said the accused is suspected of being of unsound mental health.

Investigators are now trying to trace an unidentified woman who was travelling with the father and daughter at the time of the incident.