Child dies, 25 others taken ill after consuming ‘prasad’, granthi booked

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, March 16

In an incident that created a scare in the city, a child died while 25 others were taken ill — two of them seriously — after they partook of ‘prasad’ from a local gurdwara here on Wednesday evening.

Police said that on Thursday morning all 26 children showed signs of acute food poisoning and one of them—two-year-old Baljit Singh — was in pain when he was brought to the civil hospital where he died moments after being admitted.

Two of the children were not responding to treatment following which they were shifted to an Amritsar-based hospital.

 Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Pardeep Aggarwal drove straight to the civil hospital where he assured the children’s wailing and hysterical parents that the guilty would not be spared.

SDM Pirthi Singh, who watched the CCTV footage on DC’s instructions, described the case as “fishy”.

SSP Deepak Hilori later directed Civil Lines police to detain Granthi Paramjit Singh. Sources claimed videos from the CCTV showed the granthi mixing something in the ‘prasad’ he gave to the children.

Singh has been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with the intention to commit an offence) of the IPC. The SSP said police were now investigating if granthi had assistance.  

 “It is well known that Paramjit Singh was not on good terms with the gurdwara management committee. This strengthened our suspicion,” Hilori said.

Gurdwara Secretary Kulwant Singh said the ‘prasad’ was not made on the premises. “It was prepared by people of the neighbourhood for a function on Wednesday and was brought to the gurdwara after not many people turned up at the event. It was in the evening that the granthi gave it to the children,” he said.