Police said that Alam and his family used to work in a jute mill nearby where they stitched bags.

Nine persons, including six of a family, were found dead in an open well beside a cold storage unit in Gorrekunta village of Telangana’s Warangal Rural district. Four bodies were found Thursday evening while five bodies were found today morning. There are no injuries on the bodies

Police said that Maqsood Alam and his wife Nisha, who hail from West Bengal, had migrated to Warangal to work as labourers 20 years ago and used to stitch jute bags for a living. Police said that bodies of Alam, his wife, daughter, three-year-old grandson, sons Sohail and Shabad, and Shakeel Ahmed from Tripura, and Sriram and Shyam from Bihar were found in the open well.

Ruling out a suicide pact, ACP Shyam Sundar said, “If it was a suicide pact, only the family of six would have committed suicide but there are three other bodies. We are investigating several angles.”

The six-member family used to live in a rented house in Karimabad. After the lockdown was announced, they requested the owner of the jute mill to allow them to stay at a room in the godown. While they stayed in a room on the ground floor of the godown, the two youths from Bihar stayed on the first floor.

The deaths came to light when the owner of the mill, S Bhaskar, visited the premises on Thursday afternoon and found the family and the three others missing.

Initially police suspected that the two youths may have been involved in the disappearance of the family but after their bodies were found today morning, their involvement was ruled out. “Maqsood’s family has been living here for 20 years. Shakeel used to work as a driver at the jute mill while Shyam and Sriram worked in the mill. Maqsood’s daughter is divorced and she also lived with them with her 3-year-old son,” police said.

Bhaskar told police that although the factory was closed, the family as well as the three others had enough dry rations and money and that they were under no distress.

Bhaskar said that he wanted to restart the factory but when he went there on Thursday afternoon the family and the three others were missing. As their mobile phones were switched off he informed the police. In the evening, he and others who were searching for them in the area saw bodies in the well. Police today drained out the well and found five more bodies. Cops found half eaten food in the room where the family was staying. Their bodies have been sent to MGM Hospital in Warangal for post-mortem.