A 10-year-old boy, who was missing from Sunday, was found dead in an open well close to his house at Ashok Nagar, at Sundakkamuthur near Kovaipudur, on Wednesday. The police identified the victim as S. Akash and suspect that he could have fallen into the 120-feet-deep well while trying to catch pigeons living there.
Police sources said the boy was the younger among the two children of Corporation conservancy workers M. Senthil Kumar (34) and S. Sridevi (32). They were living in the Harijan Colony at Sundakkamuthur and the victim and his 12-year-old sister studied in a nearby government school.
Perur inspector P. Selvaraj quoted his parents as saying that Akash, a Standard V student, was irregular to school for about a month. “Inquiries revealed that the boy used to go with his friends to catch pigeons from abandoned wells and sell it and also went with friends to collect money for Vinayaka Chathurthi,” the inspector said.
On Sunday, Akash is said to have had breakfast at his uncle’s house and was missing from then. The same day his parents had lodged a complaint with the Perur Police and a case was registered. While the boy could not be traced for three days, his relatives searched nearby open wells and found him dead on Wednesday.
Police suspect that he could have fallen while trying to catch pigeons. “He suffered multiple injuries and died. It could have taken two days for the body to come to the surface,” Mr. Selvaraj said. The body was taken to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for post-mortem examination.
Station fire officer (Coimbatore South) P. Annadurai said that the unused well was 125-feet-deep and had water for only about five feet. “It is located in a piece of land that was sold as house sites. We will write to the local body to cover it with a mesh,” he added.
Sandalwood feller drowns
In another incident P. Ramesh (35) of Mettupalayam fell into an 80-feet-deep well at Chitanaiken Palayam on Chettipalayam to Palladam Road and died on Tuesday night.
Sulur inspector S.M. Shanmugam said that the victim and his two accomplices Loganathan and Rangasamy tried to axe a sandalwood tree in a private land when a dog barked.
“The trio were fleeing when he could have accidentally slipped and fallen into the well at farmer Subramanian’s land,” the inspector said. The body was retrieved from the well and sent to CMCH for post- mortem examination. The police said that the post-mortem will be conducted on Thursday.
