Even as it awaits the forensic examination results, a police investigation has confirmed food poisoning as the cause of 33-year-old Reshmi Raj’s death in Kottayam.
Officials said the investigation had proved beyond suspicion the role of the restaurant from where the deceased consumed food. Based on the finding, the agency has booked a case under IPC section 374 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the restaurant owners and its chef.
“The victim was only one among some 24 persons hospitalised after consuming food from the restaurant. The forensic examination results of the victim’s internal organs are yet to be received but the investigations on the ground have proved beyond suspicion that the quality of food served at the restaurant was indeed poor,” said K. Karthik, District Police Chief, Kottayam.
A preliminary medical report had attributed the woman’s death to infection to internal organs. During the course of investigation, the police collected statements of people who had been hospitalised after consuming food from the eatery unit and also sent food samples from the restaurant’s kitchen for a lab test to ascertain its quality.
According to police, the victim collected a food parcel from the restaurant around 2 p.m. on the fateful day and returned to her workplace before consuming it. Based on these findings, it also arrested chief chef of the eatery unit while a search is on to trace two more persons in this connection.
The victim, a nurse with the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam, developed uneasiness after having food from the Park restaurant near Samkranthi, Kottayam, on December 29. A few other persons who had consumed food from the eatery on the same day too suffered from food poisoning.
