Ahmedabad, April 7 The body of a two-and-a-half-month-old infant was exhumed by the city police on Tuesday, days after she and her three-year-old sister died under mysterious circumstances with their parents alleging food poisoning due to ready-made dosa batter.
The exhumation was carried out in the presence of an executive magistrate and a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) officer, and the remains were sent to Civil Hospital for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of death, said inspector J K Makwana of Chandkheda police station.
The baby girl had been buried at a crematorium in Chandkheda.
The infant died on April 4 and her elder sister, aged three, on April 5.
Their parents Vipul Prajapati and Bhavna Prajapati, currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital, told police that they suspected the deaths were linked to dosas prepared from ready-made batter purchased from a local dairy on April 1.
The batter was used to make dosas on April 1 and 2, they said.
The family fell sick but did not go to hospital immediately as they felt better after initial treatment at home.
When the condition of all four worsened, they were admitted to a private hospital, said the police official.
The couple performed the last rites of the infant daughter without reporting the death. On April 5, the elder daughter felt dizzy after waking up and collapsed. She was taken to hospital where she was declared dead, said Makwana.
Police then registered a case of accidental death and initiated investigation. The autopsy of the three-year-old girl was conducted, and FSL and the Food and Drugs Department teams collected samples of food from the house as well as from the dairy from where the batter had been bought, the official said.
Police were awaiting the reports of laboratory tests, he added.
Dairy owner Vipul Patel was also being questioned, the official said.
Vipul Patel, the owner, denied any link between the batter and the deaths.
The Prajapati family purchased batter on April 1 and returned a portion of it on April 3, alleging food poisoning, he told reporters.
"They came and said food poisoning had occurred after eating the batter. I told them to bring it back so I could check. I reviewed CCTV footage and found several customers had bought batter before and after them. I even spoke to some of them, and none reported any problem," said Patel.
"I sell around 100-125 kg of batter regularly. At least a few complaints should have come," he said.
"They (the Prajapati family) returned most of the batter. Only about 285 grams had been used. I opened it in front of CCTV, tasted it, and found nothing wrong," he said.