A woman and her child were found dead inside a well in Kerala’s Malappuram district on Friday morning. Abida, aged 33 years, and her daughter Fathima Shafna, aged one and a half years, were found dead hours after they were reported missing from their house in Thirunavaya.
“Last night we got a complaint that they went missing. All the surroundings were searched and the police were also involved in the search operations. We had looked at the railway station and the bus station and other possible places where missing persons may be found at. A case was registered too. However, it is early this morning that the bodies were found inside a well of a nearby plot,” says a police official at the Tirur station.
The deceased woman’s husband Shafeeq is a Gulf returnee who has been working at a cement yard for a while. The couple also have a son. “Last night the family had dinner with Shafeeq’s parents, grandmother and siblings, and one of the married brother’s family was also there. Shafeeq and Abida were married for eight years and in a relationship for two years before that. We cannot say how the mother and daughter died as of now. Inquest and postmortem are only going to happen,” the police said.
In May, the body of a nun was found from a well in a convent in Thiruvalla, in Pathanamthitta. Sister Divya P Johny was 21 years old. The death triggered a controversy since the PRO of the diocese had quickly released a press statement calling it a 'normal death', and there have been similar instances in the past. Sr Jessy Kurian, a Supreme Court advocate, wrote that bodies of at least 20 nuns were found in wells in different convents across the state, including the infamous case of Sister Abhaya in 1992.