MANDYA: One-and-a-half-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, died after eating ice cream laced with poison at Bettahalli village in Srirangapatna taluk on Wednesday night. The victims have been identified as Trishul and Trisha, children of Prasanna and Pooja. Preliminary investigations revealed that Pooja mixed some poison with the ice cream and fed it to Trishul, Trisha and her other three-year-old daughter. Pooja also ate the poisoned ice cream later.
The reasons for Pooja’s extreme act are not known. She bought the ice cream from a pushcart vendor, who came to Bettahalli in the evening. Trishul and Trisha died while being rushed to a local hospital. Pooja and her three-year-old daughter are being treated at the Mandya District Hospital. Initially, it was believed that Pooja and her children fell ill after eating the ice cream. The police swung into action and launched a search for the vendor, thinking that the ice cream sold by him might be contaminated.
However, during investigations, it was revealed that Pooja allegedly mixed “Lakshmana Rekha”, an insecticide to keep away cockroaches and other insects, with the ice cream and fed it to her children.
During investigations, the police also found that many people in the village ate ice cream from the same vendor, but they did not complain of any health problems. Further investigations are on.