Gujarat: Woman ‘jumps into well’ with four kids, 1 saved

A 30-year-old woman and three of her children drowned in an open well on Sunday when she threw them into the well and jumped in after them. Her son, her fourth child, was rescued from the well in Jetalvad village of Junagadh district.

Visavadar police inspector Haresh Rathod said that they received an alert at around 11 am that a woman, identified as Divuben Gadhvi, had thrown her four children in an open well on an agricultural field belonging to one Bharat Bachu in Jetalvad village.

Police, rescue teams and locals rushed to the spot and rescued her seven-year-old son Raju. According to police, Raju clung on to a pipe in the well. His cries alerted people working on a nearby agriculture field who rushed to the spot.

“There was water in the well. But Raju survived after his mother threw him down in the well. He managed to cling on a pipe lowered in the well to draw water and started crying. Hearing his cries, people who were working on adjoining field rushed to the spot and pulled the boy out of the well. It was then that the boy told them that his mother and other siblings were also in the well,” Rathod told The Indian Express.

The other children were identified as Janavi (four-and-half-year-old) and Hetvi (three-year-old) and Karan (11-month-old). Police said that the woman was a resident of Jetalvad village.

Police said that Raju suffered injuries on his head and was rushed to a government hospital in Junagadh, where, police said, his condition was reported out of danger.

“Prima facie, the mother killed her children and later took her own life due to financial constraint. She was working with a local guashala in the village and used to get around Rs 3,000 per month. Her husband Harsur works as a diamond polisher. Harsur’s mother is ailing and the couple were struggling very hard to make ends meet,” the inspector said.