There was still a lot of hope left until last night. Unfortunately, early this morning the young 2-year-old who fell into an abandoned borewell on Friday evening, was retrieved dead from the hole. Confirming fears that the boy had been dead for sometime, Principal Secretary J Radhakrishnan told the media that the body had started decomposing.

Speaking to media persons at the site, the senior bureaucrat said, “Around 9: 30 pm, we got a report that a decomposed smell was emanating from the original borewell. We sent a medical team inside. NDRF, SDRF and fire service crack teams went in. They told us that unfortunately the body had highly decomposed. Final observations are ongoing. We have stopped digging.” On Friday around 5.30 pm, Sujith was playing near the abandoned borewell on his father’s property when he slipped and fell inside. Visuals from the scene show just the boy’s head and hands inside the narrow shaft of the borewell.

Various machines including ONGC and L&T’s rig machines were used to drill a tunnel to try and rescue the boy. The entire state which was hoping and praying for a miracle to happen, has been left heartbroken.