Six children danced at their school annual day in Dindori on Friday night. By midnight, all six were dead, along with three adults who had come to watch them perform.
Nine members of the family were killed after the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a well in Dindori, nearly 20 km from Nashik in Maharashtra, while returning home from the function on Friday night.
Three ambulances carried the bodies of the Durgade family to Indore village in Dindori, where their last rites were carried out by family members.
Four families were affected by the accident, belonging to two sets of brothers who were also related to each other.
Ajay Durgade, the 14-year-old cousin of the girl who had participated in the dance performance, is in a state of shock. They had performed to the popular Mauli Mauli song from Lai Bhari and other songs linked to the army, he says.
“We were all sitting together after the dance performances. We were all very happy and Rakhi (Sunil’s daughter) was honoured for scoring highest in her class. They told us they were leaving before the final song as there would be too much traffic. That is the last I saw of them,” says Ajay with a blank expression.
In Indore village, surrounded by green fields, most of the Durgade family are farmers. They had ensured all their children were receiving an English education and were proud of them for doing well academically.
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Another relative, Sachin Durgade, said: “Once the last rites are over and the family recovers from the trauma, we will be asking the police for answers and what they have done. We will also question the administration about why they delayed filling up the well for so long when there were complaints earlier.”
THE VICTIMS
1. Rakhi (Gunwati): Daughter of Sunil and Reshma, she was studying in Class 4 at Janta English School. She had topped her class and was being honoured at the annual day event.
2. Shraddha: Daughter of Anil and Asha, she was studying in Class 7 at Janta English School and was an avid dancer. She also performed at the annual day event.
3. Shravani: Daughter of Anil Durgade, she was in Class 5 at Janta English School and was part of the dance performance at the annual day.
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4. Sunil and Reshma: Sunil was a farmer who volunteered to drive the children to the function. Reshma was his wife. Their entire family has been wiped out.
5. Asha: Wife of Anil Durgade, she accompanied the children to the function along with her brother-in-law.
6. Shrishti: Studying in Class 8 at Janta English School, Shrishti performed a dance at the event.
7. Samruddhi: The youngest of them all, Samruddhi was studying in Class 1 in Nashik city.
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8. Shreyas: In Class 5 at Janta English School, Shreyas was an avid cricketer.
A disaster waiting to happen: the well at the end of the road
The 40-feet-deep well at the end of a concrete road, left uncovered with a boundary wall barely a few feet high, claimed the lives of nine people in Nashik’s Dindori on Friday night. The reasons behind this unsafe well are multiple: agricultural land converted to Non-Agricultural (NA) land, a dispute between a local landowner and the nagar panchayat, a newly laid concrete road, and alleged negligence.
The well has been there for decades, according to local residents, but everything around it changed — from farms to residential houses. “In the early 2000s, it went from being agricultural land, where a well is allowed, to NA land where residential buildings and bungalows came up,” said Sandeep Boraste, a local civil contractor who on Saturday was overseeing the job of filling up the well.
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“Initially, not many vehicles went there as the road was not laid and locals knew there was a well there. It was also covered back then and had a higher boundary wall,” said Puja Gadve, a resident of a bungalow near the well.
When amenities like the Raje banquet hall — the venue the family was returning from when the accident happened — came up in the area, a concrete road was freshly laid nearly four to five years ago to provide a back exit and parking space, said local resident Pramod Jangam. The hall is owned by accused Rajendra Raje, who also owns the well.
The 40-foot-deep well in Dindori that claimed nine lives on Friday was a known hazard, left dangerously exposed due to administrative negligence and land disputes.
“The nagar panchayat wanted to flatten the well as it was now NA land, but Raje appealed against it, stating that he still had a farm. Since then, the dispute has been pending and the status quo remained,” an officer from Dindori police station said.
The laying of the road right up to the well worsened the situation further — the accumulated debris raised the ground level around the well, leaving the boundary wall barely a few feet high, Boraste added. The well owner allegedly did not cover the well after it became exposed in recent years.
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“Eventually it was a disaster waiting to happen if any outsider tried to take this route and was unaware about the uncovered deep well,” a police officer said.
When asked why action was not taken to ensure the well was covered, Dindori Zilla Panchayat CEO S. Chaudhary said that in February, when his staff had seen the open well, they had proposed it be flattened to make a road and the necessary resolution for the same had been passed.
Several local residents claimed that in the past, a biker and a cow had also fallen into the well. The Dindori police said they had heard about this but no formal complaint was ever made.
