Greater Noida: Missing 9-year-old found dead in a well

GREATER NOIDA: A nine-year-old girl, who had gone missing for the past five days, was found in a well in Pyawali village of Greater Noida on Thursday evening, said police.
While police had earlier claimed the incident seems to be a suicide, they later said it was unclear what led to her death. The Class III student had gone missing on the night of October 11 after her father had allegedly scolded her.
According to the police, no missing complaint was filed in the case and they received information about the body from a former pradhan of the village, Kamal Singh, around 7.25pm after which a team was sent to the spot and the decomposed body was recovered.
“No one from the family had informed about the girl going missing. He is known to be a heavy drinker,” said additional DCP Vishal Pandey.
The girl’s father, Anurag, told TOI that she had a bad habit of picking up money and spending it on eatables.
“I suffer from psoriasis. My wife left me three years ago and married someone else. The children, including my daughter and my eight-year-old son, stay with their grandparents. Their grandmother remains unwell. The loss of mother has impacted my children. My daughter had developed a bad habit and she would pick up whatever amount of money she found lying in the house and spend it on eatables. That evening she picked up Rs 1,800 that were kept somewhere in the house and went out of the house,” he said.
Anurag said when he failed to search for his daughter around his house, someone told them that she was in a temple.
“I tried to find her in the fields but couldn’t find her. I then went to the temple too but failed to find her there too,” he said, adding that he did not inform police due to fear of “shame.”
He said his daughter’s body was unidentifiable and had got swollen so much that any injuries could only be ascertained only after an autopsy.
“Yesterday, her body was found in the well at the outskirts of the village. The news spread in the entire village after which I got to know. When I reached there, I saw the body floating in the well. I identified my daughter from her T-shirt,” said the grieving father, adding that no money was found from near her.