Tragedy repeated itself in a family in Sonbhadra, eerily in a similar manner, after two years and claimed the life of a girl child on each occasion.
Shailendra, a native of Jhansi, and his wife, who run a roadside stall selling street food in the Duddhi bazaar area of Sonbhadra district, lost their one-and-a-half-year-old girl after she accidentally fell into a boiling pot of chickpeas at their home, the police said on Monday.
This incident is strangely similar to another tragedy which the family was struck by two years ago when the couple lost their elder daughter, who, too, fell into a hot cooking vessel.
The mishap took place at around 9 am on Friday when Shailendra was preparing chickpeas in a pot for his food stall. While he and his wife were momentarily engaged in other tasks, their toddler daughter, Priya, who was playing near the utensil, accidentally fell into the hot pot, police said.
The child was rushed to the Duddhi Community Health Centre, where doctors referred her to the district hospital for further treatment.
However, despite medical efforts, the child succumbed to her injuries on the same day, officials said.
Shailendra buried her daughter the next day near the banks of the Kanhar River in Duddhi.
He recalled that two years ago, his elder daughter, Saumya, aged around two at the time, also died in similar circumstances after she accidentally fell into a hot pot of utensils.
That, too, was an accident, he said.
Duddhi station house officer Manoj Singh said the incident was not initially reported to the police.
"However, upon receiving information and conducting an inquiry, it was found to be an accident," he said.