TIRUVANNAMALAI: A 5-year-old girl from Cheyyar, Tiruvannamalai, died after allegedly consuming local mango juice on Saturday.
The deceased has been identified as R Kavyasri. The child’s father, E Rajkumar had brought her a Rs 10 packet of mango pulp juice, after she had her breakfast on Saturday.
According to her parents, soon after finishing the soft drink, the child experienced breathing difficulties. Alarmed by this, she was rushed to the nearby Kanchipuram Government Hospital where the doctors referred her to Chengalpet Government Hospital for further treatment. However, Kavyasri died on the way to the hospital.
Kavyasri’s father, Rajkumar, told TNIE, “My daughter had no previous health issues. It was only after drinking the mango juice that she started reacting like this.” The child’s body was sent to Chengalpet GH for postmortem. However, officials have informed the family that the autopsy report will take three months to be released.
When contacted by TNIE, Dr A Ramakrishnan, Tiruvannamalai’s Food Safety Officer, said, “This is the first instance in Tiruvannamalai where a child’s death is linked to consuming juice from a petty shop. We have collected a sample of the juice and are currently investigating the local juice manufacturer, who distributes from Namakkal. We will proceed with further action once the preliminary investigation is complete.”