Petty Dispute Over A Temple Festival In Karnataka Turns Into A Ghastly Tragedy: 12 Poisoned To Death

A petty dispute between two groups over the installation of a gopuram for a local deity in Chamarajnagar district turned in to a ghastly tragedy as 12 persons died and over 80 took ill and are hospitalised after taking poisoned tomato bhath as ‘Prasadam’, Deccan Herald has reported.

As a fallout of the rivalry between two groups, insecticide was allegedly mixed with the Prasadam and distributed on Friday at Sulvadi Kichchugutti Maramma temple in Hanur taluk, causing a catastrophic loss of human lives.

The incident was initially believed to a simple case of food poisoning, but turned out to be shocking instance of sabotage.

Chamarajanagar police has taken two residents of the same village - Chennappa, a member of the local village gram panchayat, and Madesha, into custody. According to villagers, two had fought with each other two days back over the land on which the temple stands.

Hundreds of devotees from neighbouring villages congregated at the temple for the local festival yesterday. All the devotees were made to sit in line and served rice bhath prepared at the temple premise. Within few minutes, several devotees started vomiting and also complained of diarrhoea. After a few devotees fell unconscious, and the number of affected people increased dramatically, villagers alerted the 108 ambulance service.

District in-charge minister, Puttaranga Shetty, who rushed to the district and visited various hospitals in Kamagere, Kollegal and Mysuru where the patients have been admitted, said that strict action would be taken against the culprits.

Chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, has announced payment of five lakh rupees ex gratia to the next of kin of the deceased, while the entire medical expenses of the hospitalised would be borne by the government.

Under the instructions of the chief minister, health department officials of Mysuru, Mandya, and Chamarajanagar districts have been advised to see that whatever help is needed by the victims of this incident is provided to the patients without fail.