WARANGAL: A day after four bodies were fished out from an agriculture well in Geesukonda near Warangal, the police recovered five more bodies from the same well on Friday, adding a chilling dimension to a tragedy whose mystery the police have not yet unravelled.
The residents of the city experienced a rude jolt when the police recovered four bodies from the agriculture well on Thursday and as police busied themselves figuring out how they died, the discovery of five more bodies sent them through the hoops, making it difficult for them to comprehend the full dimension of the tragedy for a while. The Warangal Rural police said that of the nine dead, six were from a single family, who had come here from West Bengal for livelihood and two were migrant workers from Bihar and one from Tripura.
Of the six deceased of the same family, one was the head of the family and he was identified as Mohammed Maqsood Alam, 56. He worked in a gunny bag manufacturing unit close to which the agricultural well is located.
Other victims were identified as his wife Nisha, 48, sons Sohail Alam, 20, and Shabad Alam, 21, daughter Bushra, 24, and a three-year-old grandson.Apart from these six persons, the three other victims were identified as Shakeel Ahmed, 40, hailing from Tripura and two persons from Bihar — Sriram, 35, and Shyam, 40.
According to sources, Maqsood Alam’s family had been working in a nearby mill for the past 20 years. They were living at Kareemabad in the city.With lockdown being in force, the Maqsood family stayed in a single room at the manufacturing unit. Maqsood Alam’s daughter Bushra divorced her husband and she was staying with her father with her three-year-old son. Meanwhile, the two migrant workers from Bihar also stayed in another room at the manufacturing unit.
The police officials said that in the preliminary investigation, they found no marks of injuries on the nine bodies. They suspect that all of them ended their lives in a suicide pact. The police are unable to figure out the motive for the suicide till late evening. They had thought the family ended their lives due to financial problems during the lcokdown, but with five more bodies being recovered which included workers from Bihar and Tirupara, the police are examining other angles too, like any personal issues being involved other than financial problems.
Dog squads and clues teams are at the site and investigation is continuing. Geesugonda police registered cases of suspicious deaths. They collected mobile phones of the victims and are looking into the call history.Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravinder, who visited the spot, said that they got information about the bodies from the owner of the gunny bags’ manufacturing unit.
“We found no injuries on the bodies. Only after looking at the post-mortem report, we would know the cause of the death. We have formed teams to investigate the case from all angles. Once we find evidence and reconstruct the scene, we would know in which direction we should investigate further,” he said.The bodies have been shifted to MGM Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod were among those who visited the spot. Meanwhile, Government Chief Whip D Vinay Bhaskar announced `50,000 for deceased families from his personal funds.