Kushinagar: ‘Poisonous toffees’: 3 held for kids’ death

The children, including three girls, belonged to a scheduled caste family. While three of the victims were siblings, the fourth was their cousin. They were aged between two and five.

Those arrested have been identified Prem Prasad and Bala, both brothers, and Chabas, the neighbours of the victims’ family, said police. The three were named in the FIR filed by the Rasgulla, the father of three of the victims.

Kushinagar Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ritesh Kumar Singh said the suspects confessed to have committed the crime.
During the probe, the police found that the victims’ family had earlier lodged two FIRs against the suspects’ family members, leading to an enmity between them.

“It was also found during the probe that two days back Prem Prasad had threatened to kill Rasgulla. During a search at Prem’s house, the police found two packets suspected to be containing some poisonous substance which will be sent to laboratory for examination,” said Singh.
The reports of the deceased’s viscera sent for examination are still awaited, the ASP added.

An FIR was registered against the three accused, also belonging to the Scheduled Caste, on charges of murder, poisoning and criminal intimidation. Both the victims’ family and the arrested accused are relatives, it is learnt.

According to the police, the children spotted a packet containing four toffees and some coins outside their house on March 23 morning. The children brought the packet inside the house and their grandmother distributed toffees to them, the family had said.