A man allegedly beat up his son to death for showing interest in studies instead of working on the fields in Jabe village of Purnia district, police said on Wednesday.

Eight-year-old Mohammed Ashique was battered to death by his father Mohammed Sajan on Tuesday, soon after the child returned home from the

local madrasa (seminary), Superintendent of Police B S Meena said.

Sajan never appreciated his son’s inclination towards studies and wanted him to work, to supplement the family’s meagre income. He often quarrelled with his wife over the issue. The boys mother opposed several attempts to withdraw him from school.

On Tuesday, when Ashique returned home in the afternoon, Sajan picked up a fight with his wife over the issue once again. When the mother-son duo protested his high-handedness, he began to clobber the boy with his fists and then a stick, killing him on the spot, the SP said.

Sajan was in such a frenzy that he did not stop hitting the child’s body even after he was dead, Meena said quoting the villagers, who later overpowered the man. He was arrested and a case of murder was registered against him.