Woman gives daughters oil instead of tonic

A woman accidentally fed her two daughters a spoonful each of massage oil instead of a cough syrup on Monday, resulting in the death of the girls. The mother is still in a state of shock and grief. Crying bitterly she repents the tragic blunder that cost her the lives of her daughters.

“How can a mother kill her own children? It was an accident, which I will regret my entire life,” said a weeping, 29-year-old Vinita Khanvilkar, mother of two girls, aged five and seven. “Both liquids had been stored in identical bottles and accidentally I fed poison to my darling daughters,” Vinita said.

Meanwhile, police are awaiting the chemical analysis report of the bottles to ascertain that the liquid consumed by the two, Prajakta and Sakshi, was massage oil. “It is purely an accidental death case and there is no need to arrest Vinita, however, until the report comes, it will be assumed that some ingredient in the massage oil had had a poisonous effect on the children,” said Phoolsingh Pawar, the investigation officer of the case.

The family of three had been living with Vinita’s brother and parents in Ghatkopar, ever since her husband died three years ago. It took the family few hours to realise the mistake when the girls returned from play and began vomiting. While the younger girl passed away within 30 minutes, the older one struggled for another two hours.