Five members of the same family were found dead under suspicious circumstances in their house in Greater Noida area of Uttar Pradesh, adjacent to Delhi, on Saturday.
News agency ANI quoted Noida Police as saying that the deceased have been identified as Mahesh (37 years), his wife Lalita (35 years), children Laddu (11), Mishti (daughter, 7 years) and Sakshat (3 years).
As soon as the information was received, local police, senior officers, ambulance and food safety department team reached the spot. The field unit and forensic team carefully inspected the incident site and collected evidence.
According to the police, at first glance it seems to be a case of food poisoning.
Greater Noida DCP Shravan Kumar Singh said, "A very tragic incident has taken place. Five people of the same family have died. These include husband, wife and three children."
He said, "These people came at 10 o'clock in the night (Friday). When they went to wake up the child for examination in the morning, he was found dead. They are investigating based on what he had eaten and other evidence has been collected, based on which further action is being taken."
According to the neighbours, all the people killed had gone to see the fair on Friday and after returning there they all ate noodles. In the morning, information was received that the husband, wife and three children who had eaten noodles have died.
Police say that according to the local people and the mother of deceased Mahesh, "the family members had eaten noodles last night."
The actual cause of death has not been confirmed yet. Further legal action will be taken based on the results of the postmortem report and other scientific investigations.
Lalita's uncle Kanhaiya Singh said, "There are no eyewitnesses right now. There were five members in the house. All five have died so nothing can be said. This family had good property."
He told, "There has been a history of disputes over property in the family. These people were two brothers and three sisters. First the elder brother died after being hit by a train. Then the father died and now he died. Now this entire family is finished."
Kanhaiya Singh himself lives in Delhi and after getting information about the incident, he reached the hospital, where all the bodies have been brought for post-mortem.
He further said, "Now only the mother is left in this family and it is being said that she too is unable to get up and sit. There was a dispute a few days ago. Most of their property was in the mother's name. The daughters have raised some property issues with the mother, but I cannot say anything concretely."
According to Kanhaiya Singh, "Two-three years ago also he had lit two-three heaters in the room, I came running and then saved him. It is not known what happened. Even the post-mortem will only reveal the reason for death, but we cannot say anything about why it happened."
In this incident, the children's maternal uncle i.e. Lalita's brother Sonu told, "My younger brother had come to work in this area. He said let's go and meet Didi. When he came here, he saw that everything is over."
Some neighbor women of the deceased claim that sounds of fighting often came from the house of the victim's family.
A woman from the neighborhood told news agency ANI, "When everyone returned after seeing the fair at night, the mother-in-law (Lalita's) told them not to cook food so late in the night, everyone should eat Maggi and go to sleep."
He claimed, "There were often sounds of fights with her mother-in-law from this house and Lalita's mother-in-law used to say that she would give all her property to her daughters."
This incident took place in Nagla Padam village of Jewar assembly constituency of Gautam Buddha Nagar district.
Local BJP MLA Dhirendra Singh said, "The Chief Minister's office has been informed about the incident. All administrative officials are present here and the forensic team has also reached. The Food Department is investigating the matter."
"Strict action will be taken based on the facts that emerge in the investigation regarding consumption of poisonous substance. The concerned substance has been taken into custody for investigation. If it is found poisonous, strict action will be taken against the company manufacturing it."
However, Food Safety Officer OP Singh said after the investigation, "We checked all the wrappers, nothing was found after the expiry date. We did not find any other suspicious thing."
He said, "If it was a case of food poisoning, symptoms of vomiting or diarrhea would have been found. The dead body found was found lying in a normal position."
He expressed apprehension that 'this could be a case of seth poisoning (poisoning caused by poison or chemicals used in farming, etc.).'
The police is investigating the case.
