Rahul Gandhi condoles death of Tamil Nadu toddler

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi expressed his condolences over the tragic death of two-year-old boy Sujith Wilson, whose dead body was recovered from a borewell on Tuesday after over 80 hours of unsuccessful rescue efforts.

The boy had fallen into an abandoned borewell in Nadukattupatti village in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirappalli district around 5.30 p.m. on October 25 and got stuck at 30 feet. The boy slid down a further 90 feet even as rescue efforts were launched to rescue the boy from the trapped borewell.

"I'm sorry to hear about the passing of baby Sujith. My condolences to his grieving parents and his family," tweeted Rahul.

Speaking to reporters in the wee hours of Tuesday, J. Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation department said foul smell started emanating from the borewell and the medical teams also confirmed the death.

The body, which had started decomposing, was taken out and sent for postmortem.

According to officials, the borewell, as also the hole drilled near it to rescue the boy, will be closed soon.

On October 26, the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force took over the rescue operation as other techniques used to take the boy out of the borewell had failed.

Initially, earthmoving equipment was pressed into service to dig a pit near the borewell to reach the boy. But, it was stopped midway as the terrain was rocky. Besides, it was felt that this process could cause vibrations that may loosen the soil inside the borewell, thereby sucking the boy further down.