Telangana: 3 children die after eating poisoned food, mother battles for life

Three children were found dead in suspicious circumstances on Friday morning and their mother is battling for life in the hospital after they ate curd rice laced with poison the previous night in Telangana’s Sangareddy district, the police said.

The incident was reported from Raghavendra Colony in Ameenpur, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

“The mother has been admitted to the local hospital and her condition is critical but stable at present,” Ameenpur police inspector P Naresh said.

Naresh said he received a call early in the morning from the family’s neighbours about the incident. “When we went there, we found the children – two sons aged 12 years and eight years, and a 10-year-old daughter, lying dead on the beds with white froth on their mouths. The woman, who was unconscious, was immediately rushed to the hospital,” he said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the children had died of eating curd rice mixed with poison. The woman, a teacher in a private school, was also found to have consumed the same food.

“We have booked a case of suspicious deaths and are investigating into the actual causes of death of the children,” Naresh said.

The police took the father of the deceased, who works as a driver for a private water tanker, into custody for questioning. “He said he had returned home from work around 11.30 pm on Thursday and went to bed after having dinner. By then, his wife and children were already asleep,” the inspector said.

Quoting the husband, the police official said around 3 am, his wife complained of severe pain, while his children were lying unresponsive on the bed. “He alerted the neighbours and they informed the police station,” he said.

The police shifted the bodies of the deceased children to Gandhi Hospital for postmortem.

“The family hails from Medakpally in Talakondapally mandal (block) in Rangareddy district and has been living in Ameenpur for the last one year,” Naresh said, adding the police are probing the case from all angles, including any financial issues or family disputes.