Warangal: Nine bodies fished out from well

Warangal: The death toll climbed to nine on Friday even as the mystery behind the death of four migrant workers, who were found dead in an open well at Gorrekunta village under Geesukonda mandal on Thursday, is continuing to puzzle the police.

The police on Thursday retrieved four bodies of migrant workers, who hailed from West Bengal. The police pumped out the water from the well after they identified one more body floating in the waters on Friday morning. In all, the nine bodies were identified as Maqsood Alam (50), his wife Nisha Alam (45), their sons Shabaz Alam (21) and Sohail Alam (20), daughter Bushra Alam (22), Bushra's three-year-old son, Sriram (35), Shyam (40) and Shakeel (40).

While Maqsood and his family hail from West Bengal, Sriram and Shyam belonged to Bihar. Shakeel is a local and worked as a driver in an adjacent factory.

Maqsood along with his family has been staying in Kareembad in Warangal city for the last two decades. He and his wife have been working in a mill in Gorrekunta industrial area since December. They used to commute between their home and mill every day. However, since the coronavirus lockdown, Maqsood along with his family have been staying at the mill due to transport problem. Sriram and Shyam used to live in another room on the terrace of the mill.

Warangal Commissioner of Police V Ravinder said: "The owner of the mill informed the Geesukonda police that his employees were missing. Later in the afternoon, he informed them about their death in a well adjacent gunny bags manufacturing unit." He said that there were no traces of injuries on any of the nine bodies. The Commissioner said that the post-mortem report would give them more leads in finding the reasons behind their death. He said that they have formed teams to investigate the case in various angles. We will be able to reconstruct the whole scene only after thorough investigation, he added.