SRINAGAR: As the legislators on Wednesday demanded a CBI probe into the 17 mysterious deaths in Badhaal village in J&K’s Rajouri, the government said an investigation into the mysterious deaths is underway.
The government also said that the clinical and laboratory reports have detected the presence of insecticides in the food samples and viscera samples of the deceased.
The NC, PDP and CPI (M) MLAs sought a CBI probe into 17 mysterious deaths in Badhaal village of J&K’s border district of Rajouri.
The 17 people including 13 children and four adults had died within 50 days of mysterious illness in the village. The authorities had declared the whole village as a containment zone and shifted the population to a quarantine centre, where they were released after over a month-long stay.
Responding to a question by NC MLA Javed Iqbal Choudhary on the CBI probe into mysterious deaths, Health Minister Sakina Itoo said the investigation is underway.“The investigation under the home department is actively pursuing the leads,” she said.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of police is probing the mysterious deaths. The minister said the clinical reports, lab investigations and environmental samples indicate that the incidents are not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin.
“The PGMIER Chandigarh revealed the presence of Aluminium and Cadmium. The CSIR-IITR Lucknow has found Aldicarb sulphate and Acetamipride Diethyl Dithiocarbamate, Chlorphenapyr. The DRDE-DRDO Gwalior found Chlorphenapyr, Abrin from samples of Sattu and maize bread. The NFL, FSSAI Ghaziabad found Chlorphenapyr and Chlorpyrophos from the food samples while CFSL, Chandigarh has found Chlorphenapyr in viscera samples of all the 17 deceased,” she said.
A total of 64 people had fallen ill due to mysterious illness in the Badhal village, where the first case was detected on December 7.
Of the 64 patients, 17 died while 44 others have recovered and three are under observation at Government Medical College and Hospital Jammu.
The doctors have adopted the Standard Treatment Policy (STP) and Discharge Procedure (DP) for the patients of Badhal village. The SOPs have been prepared by the expert team of AIIMS New Delhi/PGI Chandigarh.
“All the SOPs laid down by these teams are being adopted during the stay of the patients in the hospital and simultaneously at the time of discharge and follow-up,” the minister said.
Samples of 3500 people from the village have been taken for examination and investigation is underway.
The deaths due to mysterious illness has caused fear among the villagers but with no new caste detected, the normalcy is slowly returning to the affected village.
