What they witnessed in their father was a drunkard, who often beat them up at the smallest provocation. They never enjoyed the father's love and their poor mother was never in a position to give them the needed parental care or protection.

Within a few moments of entering the school premises from the neighbouring farm house where they were playing on the moonlit night, their life was scotched and they became motionless, thanks to the beastly behaviour of Yadaiah, who fathered nine children.

The animal instinct of Yadaiah and his two sons, Eshwar and Venkatesh, now cooling their heels in prison has plunged residents of Himayatsagar on the city outskirts into a state of shock. The father and his two sons throttled the four girls to death on Sunday night.

Ironically, the nationcelebrated Child Rights Week, barely one day before the ghastly incident.

Though, Yadaiah eliminated the four girls Renu (10), Rani (9), Bhagya (7) and Soni (5) feeling that they were a burden on him, the ground realty was something different. They never enjoyed going to school and instead they were forced to lend a hand to their mother Sugunamma in domestic chores as well as in the work at fields. The rights of child were unknown to them for the simple reason that they were too poor.

"He should have left them to their fate or else Yadaiah should have committed suicide. He never took care of them. See how beautiful the girls were," was how Leelamma, an elderly woman of the village reacted.

Ramulu, a neighbour of the victims pointed out that it was the girls who used to earn the livelihood while the male members of the family roamed on streets. "How can they justify their shameless act by saying that the poor girls were a burden on them?" a fuming Ramulu questioned.

The mother should have had a faintsuspicion as soon as the girls were missing, said Rangareddy district superintendent of police M V Dinakar Prasad.

As soon as the bodies were recovered from the school premises yesterday morning, Sugunamma, wailing inconsolably dashed to her husband and said: "You ....., I had been suspecting. You killed the children as I feared". These remarks indicated that Yadaiah was conspiring the misdeed for sometime, the SP added.

"Hang him. Don't spare him. He doesn't have the right to live anymore," said another villager Mallesh. If he felt the children to be burden, he should have given them to childless people. Just because he gave birth to them, he had no right to kill them, Mallesh argued angrily.

Several people from the village turned up at the Osmania Hospital mortuary where the postmortem was done, to lend an helping hand. They pooled up money to shift the bodies and conduct final rites. Almost everyone minced no words in blasting the killer-father and his sons, if indeed one can call themso.

Sugunamma was in a deep shock and her another daughter Shoba, who escaped miraculously was not in a position to understand what had afflicted her family.