Overview
- Five girls aged roughly 10 to 14 reportedly consumed a poisonous substance in a field on January 29 in a Dalit settlement in Haspura, Aurangabad, with four dying and one surviving, police said.
- Aurangabad’s superintendent of police said the surviving girl told officers the group decided to take poison after being scolded for mingling with boys, and investigators have not found evidence of others’ involvement so far.
- An FIR has been registered and statements are being recorded, though several parents were away for contract work outside the village, complicating interviews.
- The four bodies were cremated on January 29 without postmortems, and police were informed on February 1, constraining forensic follow-up.
- Some villagers contend the deaths may have resulted from accidental ingestion of a fertilizer or field chemical mistaken for black salt, and the exact cause remains under investigation.