Two people have died after eating sweets found outside a government office in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara, months after the 24 children in the district died from poisoning after consuming a cough syrup.
Last week, the on-duty security guard at Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) office found an unclaimed bag of vegetables and sweets outside the premises. Hours after he ate some of the sweets, 50-year-old Dasaru Yaduvanshi was rushed to the hospital with severe vomiting and diarrhoea. On January 11, two days after he consumed the sweets, he died during treatment.
A day after Yaduvanshi consumed the sweets, the family of a nearby tea stall owner also consumed them. By January 11, 72-year-old father Sunder Lal Kathuria, his wife, two daughters, daughter-in-law and granddaughter were rushed to the hospital with the same symptoms - violent vomiting, diarrhoea and weakness.
While some of his family members recovered and some are still undergoing treatment, Kathuria died.
Police continue to probe angles like what was in the sweets that rendered the seven people who ate them severely ill, and also who left them outside the PHED office. "The autopsy report has been inconclusive. The viscera has been preserved and sent to the forensic science lab. Samples of the sweets have also been sent to the food testing laboratory to find out whether they were contaminated or deliberately poisoned," said Junnardeo police station in-charge Rakesh Singh Baghel.
