Overview
- The FSL report, delivered Thursday, found zinc phosphide in the victims’ organs and in a watermelon sample, while all other food items tested negative.
- The Dokadia family ate watermelon around 1 a.m. on April 26th after hosting relatives, then developed severe vomiting and diarrhoea and died during treatment later that day.
- Police say the case remains an unnatural-death probe as they examine accidental, homicidal and suicide angles and consult forensic doctors on how the toxin reached the fruit.
- JJ Hospital’s microbiology team earlier found no bacterial infection, and forensic officials say zinc phosphide creates phosphine gas in the stomach, which can quickly damage organs; traces were hard to detect because much of the toxin was vomited, requiring 54 test rounds.
- The deaths triggered fear that hit Mumbai’s watermelon trade, with traders reporting returns and wholesale prices dropping to ₹5–₹7 per kg, even as officials stressed the poison was a rodenticide contaminant rather than something inherent to the fruit.