Unclaimed pack of sweet claims 3 lives in Chhindwara:2 families land in lifelong pain; all victims their kin want to know who did this

A bag… in which someone left some sweets and other items. Five people ate these sweets, of which three are no longer in this world. One piece of sweet gave lifelong pain to two families. Someone’s father and someone’s sister-daughter are no longer among them. The sole earner of a family is gone. Now all that’s left behind are tears in eyes… This painful story is from Junnardev in Chhindwara. On Friday, PHE department guard Dashru Yaduvanshi (53), Sundar Lal Kathuria (72), Santoshi Bai, and Khushbu and her sister Pooja ate poisoned sweets. At night, all five fell ill. Four people had to be taken to the hospital, where three lost their lives one by one. On January 11, guard Dasru passed away. On January 13, Sundar Lal, and on January 14, Khushbu (27) also lost her life. Khushbu’s mother Santoshi Bai is still under treatment. Sister Pooja is fine. Where did this poisonous sweet come from, who left it, how did they get it – to find answers to these questions, the Dainik Bhaskar team reached Junnardev. Here we talked to the affected families. Read the report… The entire sequence of events started from outside the Public Health Engineering Department (PHE) office located in Junnardev. Mukesh Kathuria has been running a tea shop here in front of the office for many years. Dasru Yaduvanshi was a guard in PHE and worked night duty. Due to tea, Dasru and Mukesh got along well. Both would have long meetings with tea sips at night. Family members were also familiar with each other. The bag contained vegetables, snacks and a box of sweets
Dasru’s daughter Kirti says – Papa used to leave home around 5 PM daily for night duty. He would return around 9 AM in the morning. On January 8th, Thursday evening when Papa reached for duty, there was a bag hanging near Mukesh uncle’s shop. Papa didn’t notice it at first. A few hours later when he came out, the bag was still hanging there. He thought someone might have left it by mistake, so he took it down to check. The bag contained vegetables, snacks and a box of sweets. Papa thought someone had left it by mistake, so he hung the bag back in the same place and returned to his duty. In the morning after completing his duty, he returned home, and didn’t notice the bag then. The bag remained hanging there for 24 hours
After the night, a whole day passed, but no one came to take that bag. The next day, Friday (January 9), Papa returned to duty again. His eyes fell on the bag. The bag was hanging there. Papa took out, maybe thinking the sweets would spoil, he might have taken out one or two pieces of sweets. After this, he hung the bag back. After eating the sweets, he got back to work. It must have been around 8:30 at night. Father called, saying there is severe pain in my stomach. I’m also vomiting. At home, we sisters and mother were there. There was no transport to reach the duty location. We said – Papa don’t worry, we are sending our cousin brother. We called brother, he reached the spot. During this time, Papa had probably taken some medicine from the medical store. Brother brought him home. The medicine didn’t provide much relief. Seeing the pain increase, we took him to the government hospital. From here, doctors immediately referred him to Chhindwara District Hospital. After being referred to Chhindwara, he was getting better, just had paralysis in a part of his body. He was also talking. He was fine during the night. In the morning, doctors asked to take him to Nagpur. We left to take him to Nagpur, but he didn’t survive. The daughter says that we did not even know earlier that father had eaten sweets, which made him sick. When other people got sick, then this whole story came out. We lost our father’s protection. What was our fault, that poisoned sweets were kept and our father was taken away from us. Why was it done, for what reason… these are the only questions that arise in mind. …This is how poisoned sweets reached the Kathuria family’s house
On January 10th, Saturday morning, unaware of Dasru’s death, Mukesh’s wife Santoshi Kathuria reached to open the shop as usual. Her eyes fell on the bag. When she took out the bag and looked, she saw a packet of sweets kept with other items. Santoshi took out four pieces of sweets and after keeping them with her, hung the bag back at the same place. A while later, when husband Mukesh reached the shop, Santoshi returned home. Upon reaching home, daughter Khushbu noticed the sweets in her mother’s hand. Khushbu took two pieces of sweets, fed one to her mother and ate the other herself. When younger daughter Pooja asked for some, mother Santoshi broke a piece in half and gave it to her. When father-in-law Sundarlal Kathuria also expressed desire to eat sweets, Pooja gave the remaining portion of her sweet to her grandfather while eating a small part herself. The mother-in-law was drinking tea at that time, so she asked to keep some sweets aside to eat later. Within a short time, everyone started feeling unwell one by one. Pooja was the first to vomit, then Khushbu and Santoshi’s condition deteriorated. The worried family members called Mukesh. He rushed home from his shop. By 12 noon, everyone including Sundarlal had fallen ill. All were immediately taken to the hospital. Here, Pooja’s condition improved with medicine, but the other three were referred to Chhindwara. The mother and daughter were admitted to a private hospital on Parasia Road, while grandfather Sundarlal was kept in another hospital. On January 13 (Tuesday) morning, Sundarlal Kathuria passed away. The same day, daughter Khushbu’s condition worsened. She was referred to Nagpur late Tuesday night, where she also died on Wednesday morning. In this incident, only Santoshi’s condition has improved. Pooja, who ate only a nominal amount of sweets, fully recovered after taking medicine from Junnardev Community Health Center. Father said – I just want to know what the reality is
Mukesh said that his wife Santoshi, daughters Pooja and Khushbu, and father Sundarlal had eaten the sweets. My daughter was struggling between life and death in the hospital. She was suffering. After my elderly father’s death, my daughter called at 12 midnight on Tuesday to inform that Khushbu’s condition was not improving. I am taking him to Nagpur. Now it’s up to fate. You keep courage. At night when some papers were needed, my younger brother sent them to him. In the morning news of his death came. All I know about the sweets is that Dasru ate the sweets first. He vomited. He couldn’t even give us any information, he said. He added, when he fell ill, he borrowed Rs 500 from the grocery store operator in front and bought medicine. After this, they took him home. When his condition deteriorated, he was taken to the government hospital. From there they brought him to Chhindwara. Now I don’t know who kept poisoned sweets there. That one piece of sweet killed my father and daughter. I just want to say that whoever did this should be punished. Whether this is destiny or enmity, only the almighty knows. I just want to know what the truth is. Four daughters lose their father’s protection
Dasru’s son-in-law Saurabh Yaduvanshi said that PHE guard Dasru Yaduvanshi was the only earning member of his family. He has four daughters. Two are married, while two are still unmarried. After the father’s death, the family faces a deep crisis of employment, livelihood and the future of daughters. Police investigating about who placed the bag there
According to Junnardev police station in-charge Rakesh Baghel, police are investigating the entire matter thoroughly. With the help of CCTV cameras installed around the crime scene, efforts are being made to find out who placed the bag there. Police say that based on whatever facts come to light in the investigation, action will be taken and soon the layer-by-layer truth of this case will be brought forward.