The case of food poisoning of June 18 in Mahad, initially booked as accidental death, has now become murder, after it was found that Pradnya alias Jyoti Survase (23), a relative of host Subhash Mane, had poisoned the dal in revenge against her in-laws and the family of a woman whom she thought had caused the break-up of her marriage. Five people have died so far, including four children.
“We were exploring all possible angles, but everything reached a dead end,” Senior Police Inspector Vishwajeet Kaingade, Khalapur police station, said. “During the investigations, we found Ms. Survase’s behaviour suspicious. When we were recording statements from family members, she would try to hear them. After two days, she got herself admitted [to hospital] with no symptoms and was discharged soon.”
Ms. Survase was one of the four people who had helped serve food at the lunch. During the questioning, Ms. Survase kept changing her statement, Mr. Kaingade said, “She maintained her claim that she cannot do such an act as it is her family. But finally, she broke down and revealed the truth.”
Ms. Survase had married the son of Mr. Mane’s wife’s sister two years ago, but grew to hate the family as they taunted her about the colour of her skin, Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar said, “They called her ‘Kali’ and kept nagging her over housework.” She held grudges against her husband Suresh Survase, mother-in-law Sindhu Survase, sisters-in-law Ujwala Pawar and Jyoti Kadam, Mr. Mane and his wife Sarita, and also against Alanka Shinde, who had allegedly broken up the marriage by spreading lies about Ms. Survase. One of the victims, Rushikesh Shinde, 12, was Ms. Shinde’s son.
Ms. Survase knew that all these families would attend Mr. Mane’s lunch, Mr. Paraskar said, and so she carried a powder used to kill snakes to Mr. Mane’s house. “Her in-laws, husband and Mr. Mane had already eaten, so she could not mix the poison in their food. She learnt that kids from the Shinde family were to eat later, after they returned from school. She mixed the poison in the dal and served them.” The bag in which she carried the poison was recovered from behind Mr. Mane’s house.
Around 120 people had eaten the food served from 2.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. and the poison was mixed by around 4.30 p.m. The poison was added only once to the bucket used for the dal, which was regularly refilled, diluting it, and so it did not affect all who ate after that.
Ms. Survase was arrested on Thursday under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 328 (Causing hurt by means of poison) and 338 (Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code, and will be produced before Khalapur JMFC court on Saturday.