The family claims there was a poisonous substance in the cake.
Chandigarh:
The family of a 10-year-old girl who died after eating a cake ordered online in Punjab claims the health department has not helped them at all. The first information report (FIR) was also filed five days after her death, her family said.
The girl had celebrated her birthday on March 24 and died hours later after the family had gone to bed. She had also vomited the cake and had trouble breathing before she died, her family said. Others in the family who ate the cake had also become ill.
The incident was picked up by local media and only received national attention on Saturday.
Her grandfather, Harbhanj Lal, told WhatsNew2Day that the lack of alertness on the part of the health department was disturbing.
“The health department official refused to take the sample of the cake we had ordered. The official insisted that they would only take samples from the shop where the cake was baked,” Mr Lal told WhatsNew2Day.
The family said the name of the bakery on the bill and the actual store were different, indicating it could have been a ‘fly-by-night’ cloud kitchen, a concept increasingly popular due to the flexible, lightweight nature of the activities.
Independent kitchens made food in mostly one-room setups to take online delivery orders, packaging the food properly as if from a large place.
“We are also keeping an eye on this concept of cloud kitchen as the name of the bakery in Zomato kept changing,” Patiala Superintendent of Police Sarfaraz Alam said.
A health official said the girl’s family visited him on Thursday. “I told them to file a formal complaint with the police and the health department. Food teams were directed to visit the house and collect samples of the cake,” the officer said, news agency PTI reported.
In footage of the birthday celebrations, the girl, Manvi, was seen cutting the cake and celebrating with her family just hours before her death.
The family claims that the chocolate cake, ordered from ‘Cake Kanha’, contained a poisonous substance.