5 hospitalised after Ggm eatery serves them ‘dry ice’ instead of mouth freshener

Three people are still in the intensive care unit. The restaurant management called the incident a plot to harm the establishment’s reputation

Five people were hospitalised with severe internal injuries after they were served unidentified chemical crystals instead of mouth sweeteners after dinner at a restaurant in Gurugram’s Sector 90, police officers aware of the matter said on Monday.

Laforestta Café at Sapphire Mall in Sector 90 in Gurugram on Monday. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The incident occurred on March 2 when Manik Goenka was celebrating his birthday at the Laforestta Café with his wife Pritika Rustagi, their friends Deepak Arora and his wife Himani, and Ankit Kumar and his wife Neha Sabharwal, all aged between 25 and 30,and Kumar and Neha’s one-year-old daughter.

Kumar told investigators that after they had dinner at 10pm, a waitress approached them with a bowl of crystals resembling “mishri” or sweeteners. Everyone in their group except Kumar and his daughter consumed the crystals. Within seconds, they started bleeding from their mouths, said Kumar. “Their mouths were burnt from some kind of chemical reaction and all of them started spitting blood. We screamed but no one came to help. The restaurant employees fled the scene. I called the police control room, and a police team arrived after 30 minutes,” Kumar said.

“An ambulance was called, but we decided not to wait for it. Pritika, whose condition was not as serious as the others, and I drove them in two cars to a hospital in Sector 90,” he added. Kumar told HT that his wife, Goenka, Arora, and Himani were still in the hospital. “Doctors have shifted Himani to a ward but the others are still in the intensive care unit. Pritika was discharged on Sunday,” he said.

Kumar said that he forcibly took some of the crystals, suspected to be dry ice, from the restaurant’s employees to show them to doctors and later gave them to the police.

Deepak Kumar Jewaria, deputy commissioner of police (Manesar), said they will send the crystals for chemical analysis soon. “Investigation is underway to determine how the guests were served harmful chemicals instead of sweeteners. We will scrutinise all the licences issued to the restaurant,” he said.

Based on Kumar’s complaint, a first information report was registered against the waitress and other unidentified restaurant employeesat the Kherki Daula police station on Sunday under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 328 (causing hurt by poison) of the Indian Penal Code.

Shridhar, who goes by a single name, the manager of the Laforestta Café and Restaurant in Sector 90, said that the incident may be a plot to harm the restaurant’s reputation. “The guests had asked for mouth sweeteners. The waitress provided it to them after which the events unfolded. I don’t know what was actually in the bowl which was served to the guests by the waitress,” said Shridhar, adding that the restaurant management was cooperating with the police in the investigation. Shridhar did not reply when asked if he had questioned the waitress about what was served to the guests.