Six children who had just performed at their school's annual function in the western Indian state of Maharashtra were among nine members of the same family killed when the vehicle they were travelling in plunged into an uncovered well on Friday night.
The victims, all from the Durgade family, had attended the annual event at the Janta English School in Dindori, around 20km from the city of Nashik, where several of the children had danced and one had been honoured for scoring the highest marks in her class.
The six children were identified as Rakhi from class 4, Shraddha from class 7, Shravani from class 5, Shrishti from class 8, Shreyas from class 5, and Samruddhi from class 1. The three adults who died were Sunil, a farmer who was driving the vehicle, his wife Reshma, and Asha, wife of Anil Durgade.
The well, 40 feet deep and uncovered, sat at the end of a concrete road in an area that had shifted from farmland to a residential zone over the past two decades. Residents said the hazard had been known for years, with previous incidents involving a biker and a cow falling into the well, though no formal complaints had been filed.
A dispute between a local landowner and the municipal body over the status of the land had left the well unfilled despite proposals to do so earlier this year.
“It was a disaster waiting to happen if any outsider tried to take this route and was unaware of the uncovered deep well," a police officer was quoted as saying by local news outlets.
A relative of the victims, Sachin Durgade, said the family would seek answers from police and the local administration once the last rites were complete. "We will also question the administration about why they delayed filling up the well for so long when there were complaints earlier," he said.
