Sambalpur: Tension gripped Ambhabana block in Bargarh district on Tuesday after the body of a Class-VI girl of Bhukta Project School was recovered from a well on the campus.
The student - Rachita Patel, 12 - reportedly did not return to classroom after lunch recess. As she did not turn up till the closure of the school, her teachers and classmates started searching the school campus and its surroundings. They first spotted her slippers floating in the well and later located her body there. Fire service personnel was informed immediately, who came and recovered the body from the 40-feet well.
The girl's father, Rajkishore Patel, and other villagers alleged that the girl died due to the negligence and lack of supervision of the school authorities. They also staged a demonstration with the girl's body and blocked the Bargarh-Raipur Road. Vehicular movement was disrupted for more than five hours on Tuesday evening due to the blockade.
The post-mortem report of her body ruled out any foul play in the incident and hinted that she had slipped into the well accidentally.
Additional tehsildar of Ambhabana Jayanta Sahu, block development officer Sahadeb Samadhiya and local police rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters. They gave a compensation of Rs 2,000 under the Harishchandra Yojana and Rs 10,000 from the Red Cross funds to the bereaved family members, and promised to pay another Rs 4 lakh from the Natural Calamity Fund.
'Dowry suicide'
In another case, the body of a pregnant woman was lifted from a well in the backyard of her in-laws' house at Ganeshnagar near Rengali in Jharsuguda district on Tuesday.
The woman was identified as Puja, the wife of Jayanta Naik, of Ganeshnagar. Jayanta married Puja, a native of Daosig village in Chhattisgarh, on May 5, 2017.
Puja's relatives alleged that Jayanta and his parents had been torturing her regularly demanding more gold, cash and a motorcycle as dowry. Jayanta's parents also allegedly did not allow Puja to talk to her parents over phone.
Puja's parents lodged an FIR suspecting that she had committed suicide failing to withstand the dowry torture anymore.
