A 10-year-old died of suspected food poisoning after eating a cake on her birthday last week in Punjab. The girl’s entire family, including her younger sister, fell ill after eating the cake, said her grandfather. He said the cake was ordered online from a bakery in Patiala.
The victim, Manvi, was seen cutting the cake and celebrating with her family in a widely shared video on social media, just hours before her death.
She cut the cake around 7 PM on March 24, by 10 PM the same night, the entire family fell sick, her grandfather Harban Lal said, adding that the sisters started vomiting soon after. Manvi asked for water, expressing extreme thirst and complaining of dryness in her mouth, he said. Afterwards, she went to sleep, he added.
The family rushed her to a hospital the next morning after her health deteriorated. She was put on oxygen and an ECG (electrocardiogram) – a recording of the heart’s electrical activity – was performed Harban Lal said. But they couldn’t save her. She was declared dead soon after, he said.
The family has alleged that the chocolate cake, ordered from ‘Cake Kanha’, contained some poisonous substance.
A first information report or FIR has been filed against the bakery owner. “The postmortem of the body has been done. A sample from the cake has also been sent for testing. We are awaiting the reports,” they said.