25 pilgrims faint at Gurugram's Budho Mata temple, given sedative-laced soft drink

Gurugram,April 13

Twenty-five pilgrims who came to a fair at Budho Mata temple in the Farukh Nagar area here fainted after allegedly consuming a sedative-laced drink on Wednesday.

An unidentified man went around distributing ‘Frooti’ as ‘prasad’. A majority of the victims were either women or children. The incident happened late last evening and all victims were rushed to Sector 10 government hospital at night and were discharged this morning.

Unidentified man offered ‘Frooti’ as ‘prasad’

We just got down from the car when an unidentified man came and offered us ‘Frooti’ in glasses. He said this was ‘Mata Ka Prasad’, which he had offered to the goddess at the temple and was distributing to everyone. Everybody from my family had it except me. Soon my wife and niece fainted. Even others, who had taken the sedative–laced soft drink, fainted. —Sushil, Victim’s relative

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According to one of the complainants, a security guard, Sushil, had come to visit the temple along with his family in a rented car. “We just got down from the car when an unidentified man came and offered us ‘Frooti’ in glasses. He said this was ‘Mata Ka Prasad’ which he had offered to the goddess at the temple and was distributing it to everyone. Everybody from my family had it except me. Soon my wife and niece fainted. Even others who had taken the sedative–laced soft drink fainted,” he said. Following his complaint, an FIR was registered under Sections of 328, 336 and 120B of the IPC. The police rushed all of them to the hospital where they remained admitted overnight and discharged in the morning. No robbery has been reported so far. —