Cops find 5 more bodies in well, b’day party holds clue

The bodies of five more guest workers were found on Friday in Warangal’s ‘well of death’, adding to the four recovered on Thursday. The police is now examining the possibility that it could have been murder and not suicide.

Of the five bodies found on Friday, two were those of the family of Maqsood Alam — his sons Shabaz, 21, and Sohail, 20. On Thursday, the body of Maqsood, his wife Nisha, their daughter Bushra and her three-year-old son had been recovered from the well.

The three other bodies recovered on Friday belonged to guest workers

Sriram, 35, Shyam and Shakeel, both 40. The police found one body floating in the water in the well on Friday morning, and decided to pump out the water and in the process found the four other bodies.

Call records found by the police showed that Maqsood invited all the others to his place to celebrate his grandson’s birthday. Cool drinks and food were found inside their home, suggesting they had a feast.

Data showed that the mobile phones of the deceased were in the same area from 9 pm on Wednesday to 6 am on Thursday. It is suspected that someone might have poisoned the food and later the bodies of the victims in the well.

Police said Maqsood’s daughter Bushra had separated from her husband and was staying with her parents along with her three-year-old son. Police is examining the role of her estranged husband. It was also stated that she had an affair with a local, which might have caused a fight. Santosh, the owner of the mill, said Maqsood’s family had no reason to commit suicide. “Maqsood asked me to let them stay in the two rooms at the mill and work during the lockdown along with his family. I agreed as two of our employees, Sriram and Shyam, were already living in a room on the terrace of the building,” he said.

“On Thursday, when I arrived at the mill, I could not find any of them. I got suspicious and informed the police. I wanted to lock the premises and started shutting down the doors and gates. When I went upstairs, I saw four bodies floating in the abandoned well next door. I immediately called the police,” Santosh said.

Maqsood and his family came from West Bengal and Sriram and Shyam hailed from Bihar. They used to work at a mill in the Gorrekunta industrial area, about 15 km from Warangal city on the route to Mahbubabad. Shakeel from Tripura was a driver at an adjacent factory. Maqsood and his family have been staying in Kareembad in Warangal since 20 years and he and his wife began working at the mill in December. During the lockdown, they were living in the mill premises. Sriram and Shyam used to live in another room on the terrace of the mill.

Warangal police commissioner V. Ravinder said the owner of the mill Santosh informed the Geesugonda police on Thursday that his employees were missing. Later in the afternoon, he informed them about the bodies found in a well in a gunny bags manufacturing unit. “We have been treating the case as a suspicious death as there was no trace of injuries on any of the nine bodies. Only the post-mortem and forensic reports will shed more light on the cause of death,” he said.

Police has formed several teams to investigate various angles in the case. “Once we find concrete evidence we will be able to reconstruct the scene and come to a conclusion,” Mr Ravinder said.