Ghaziabad: Four members of a family were found lying unconscious inside their one-room house in Muradnagar area on Thursday morning. While the 12-year-old boy from the family died after he was taken to a nearby hospital, three others are said to be in a critical condition.
Police said it is possible that the family members got suffocated while they were asleep or they had food poisoning. The family had bought dinner from a local eatery on Wednesday.
They also had an arrangement to light a fire with coal inside the house during winter. The house did not have proper ventilation.
Police said that the house belongs to Rampal (40), who is a daily wage labourer. He used to stay there along with his son Kunal (12), wife Anita and daughter Shagyn (14).
The incident came to light on Thursday morning when a milkman knocked the door but did not get any response.
He checked with the neighbours and most of them said the family members must be sleeping.
But when no one responded to repeated calls, a few neighbours tried to look inside the ground-floor house and found the four lying unconscious. While two people were on a bed, two others were on the floor.
Iraz Raja, SP (rural), said that around 7 am, police got information about the incident. “Immediately, a police team reached the spot and took the family members to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared Kunal dead. The others are under treatment and are said to be critical,” he said.
“When the police enquired with the neighbours, they said the family had purchased food from a local eatery and had that for dinner. We have taken samples of the food (daal, rice, roti and some vegetables) that we found in the kitchen. We will get those tested,” he added.
He said according to preliminary investigation, the family members had been complaining of breathing problems for around 10 days and they were being treated by a local doctor.
“We also found a prescription in the house. The room where they were found does not have a single window and once the main door of the house is shut, there is no way that fumes can escape from the room,” said the police officer.