Bodies of five minor siblings were found floating in a well on Wednesday in Chikhli village in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district, the police said.
Parents of the deceased, all boys aged between three to seven years, are absconding, an officer said. Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Omkar Singh Kalesh said the circumstances under which these children have died are being investigated.
Villagers informed the police that there was some dispute in the family of Bharat Singh, 40, who has two wives.
"Bodies of the five boys were spotted by villagers in a well in Chikhli village (about 80 km from the district headquarters) under Sendhwa rural police station," he said.
A police team fished out the bodies from the water with the help of villagers and sent them for postmortem, said ASP Kalesh.
He added that four of the children were born to Singh's first wife Sundari Bai, 36, while one child is from his second wife Anita Bai, 30.
"Bharat Singh and his wives are absconding," the officer said, adding that details will be known after the arrest of the trio. Further investigation is underway.