Unable to afford costly treatment for their six-month-old daughter, a daily-wage labourer and his wife strangled her to death and dumped her body in a ditch near their home, Tripura Police said Friday.

Police on Thursday arrested Laba Debnath, 53, the father of the ill-fated child, who confessed that he and his wife killed their baby girl Lina and later dumped her in a ditch near their Teliamura home in west Tripura, 55 km northeast of the state capital.

A police official, quoting the girl's father, said: "The baby had tetanus and also suffered a haemorrhage. Doctors had prescribed medicines that cost Rs.1,500 each day; one injection was priced at Rs 900 per dose."