MHA forms panel to probe Rajouri deaths

The team will consist of experts from the ministries of health and family welfare, agriculture, chemicals and fertilisers and water resources

Union home minister Amit Shah has ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial team to visit Badhaal village in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to ascertain the causes of 15 deaths in past six weeks, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Saturday.

Union home minister Amit Shah (PTI)

The team will be led by MHA officials and it will consist of experts from the ministries of health and family welfare, agriculture, chemicals and fertilisers and water resources. It will also be assisted by experts from animal husbandry, food safety and forensic science labs, the ministry said.

“The team would proceed on January 19 and in collaboration with the local administration would also work on providing immediate relief as well as taking precautionary measures to prevent such incidents in future,” it said.

The MHA added that experts from some of the most reputed institutions of the country have been arranged to manage the situation and understand the causative factors of deaths.

In the past 45 days, at least 15 people, including 11 children, belonging to three families have died of a “mysterious illness” in the Badhaal village of Rajouri, prompting the district police to form an SIT to probe into the incidents.

According to four daily diary reports (DDRs) registered at the Kandi police station on December 7, 12, and 23 last year and January 12, a total of 14 people — a man and his four children, a woman and her three children and a man and his four grandchildren — died.

On Friday morning, a 60-year-old woman also died under suspicious circumstances, however, it was not initially known if she was also part of the three affected families.

The first incident came to light on December 7 last year, when a family of seven fell ill after consuming a community meal, leading to five deaths.

HT reported on Friday, citing local health officials that investigations and samples indicate the incidents are not due to a communicable disease of bacterial or viral origin and that there is no public health angle.

While all samples have tested negative for viral or bacteriological aetiology, the toxicological analysis conducted by CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR) has detected toxins in multiple biological specimens.