Bengaluru: The death toll in the alleged food poisoning incident at a private residential school in Tumakuru district last week rose to four with one more person dying of cardiac arrest at a private hospital on Sunday.
The latest victim, Ramesh (45), was working as a security guard at Vidyavaridhi International School. Three students died on Thursday night within hours of consuming dinner. Tumakuru Superintendent of Police Isha Pant told Deccan Chronicle that Ramesh was critical and was undergoing treatment at the hospital.
His body was handed over to his relatives after the postmortem. Viscera samples that have been collected will be sent to a laboratory to ascertain the cause of his death.Another student is still being treated at a local hospital.Ms Pant said that the chairman of the school and former BJP legislator, Kiran Kumar, and his wife Kavitha were produced before a JMF court in Tumakuru, where they got conditional bail. Four other arrested accused too have been let off on bail.
Ms Pant said that the police are waiting for biological and chemical analyses of the food samples seized from the residential school.
The samples have been sent to two separate laboratories to know whether it was a case of food poisoning. The report is important as it is alleged that Kiran Kumar had hatched a conspiracy to poison the food. Ms Pant ruled out any political pressure in the ongoing investigation. “The probe is impartial and all those behind this heinous act will be punished,” she said.
