Maharashtra tragedy: Missing 9-year-old girl found dead in Jalgaon well; suicide suspected

NASHIK: A nine-year-old Class V student of a zilla parishad school was found drowned in a well on Dec 16 on the outskirts of Tarwade in Chalisgaon taluka of Jalgaon district. She had been missing since Dec 12 after she did not return home from school. Following a complaint by her parents, Chalisgaon taluka police registered a case of abduction against an unidentified person.

Villagers discovered the girl's body floating in the well on Tuesday. Inspector Nitin Patil, of the Chalisgaon police station, said, "The girl died from drowning. Her clothes were intact, and there were no injury marks to suggest that she was murdered and thrown into the well by anyone. The postmortem conducted on her on Tuesday evening also did not reveal any sign of injury or sexual assault. The case is still under investigation."

The police said the girl had set off for home at the same time as her two younger siblings - a sister in Class I and a brother in Class III at the same school - but she asked them to proceed further as she was afraid that their parents would scold her.

Inspector Patil said, "A small incident took place in the school in which some students told their teacher that the girl had stolen their money. The teacher then called her father on the phone and informed him about the complaint against his daughter. The girl likely ended her life fearing that her parents might scold her. Though it appears to be a case of suicide, we will investigate the case further."