Three minor girls, who decided to splash in a pond without informing their parents, died because of drowning in a village of Jharkhand’s Gumla district on Tuesday morning.

According to villagers, the girls — all students of a state government school at Asni Navatoli village under Gumla police station — were playing outside their houses as the schools were closed on Tuesday on account of Mahavir Jayanti.

According to the villagers, the girls decided to have some water adventure in the nearby village pond. “There was no one near the pond at the time when the three girls decided to take the plunge into the water around 10am. When the girls sensed danger and started shouting for help, a few villagers rushed to the spot and called other people. Later, the girls’ bodies were taken out and sent to Sadar Hospital but the doctors declared them dead,” said the village mukhiya Gauri Oraon.

The girls have been identified as Monika Kumari, 12, daughter of Kartik Oraon; Anima Kumari, 9, daughter of Somri Devi; and Saroja Kumari, 9, daughter of Birsa Lohar.

None of the parents was aware that their girls had gone to the village pond.

“We have completed the post-mortem of the girls at the Gumla Sadar Hospital and handed over the bodies for last rites to their parents after lodging a case of unnatural death,” said Gumla police station officer-in-charge Vinod Kumar.

Gumla deputy commissioner Sushant Gaurav informed The Telegraph that the district administration would try to get compensation, according to the government norms, for the parents of the deceased children.

“We will help the parents complete the paperwork so that they can get the compensation (of Rs 4 lakh each) for drowning which is now treated as a disaster by the state government,” said Gaurav.

Villagers claimed that the pond was dredged and deepened a year back.