Food poisoning case: Investigation team calls for other diners to come forward

Case registered on charges of unintentional murder, food adulteration


Our Correspondent November 14, 2018
Investigation team calls for other diners to come forward. PHOTO: SCREENSHOT/FILE

KARACHI: Police registered an FIR, No 18/206 on the charges of unintentional murder and food adulteration in the case of the death of two children,  five-year-old Muhammad and one-and-a-half-year-old Ahmed, sons of Ahsan, on a complaint filed by their father.

Meanwhile, a three-member committee formed to investigate the incident has decided to run an advertisement in print, electronic and social media appealing to all those who ate at Arizona Grill or from the food stalls at Chunky Monkey the same night to record their statements with the police to aid the investigation.

A resident of Creek Vista apartments in Phase VIII, Defence Housing Authority, Ahsan told the police that he was on a visit to Lahore when on November 11 at around 2:30 pm his brother, Subhan, called and informed him that his two sons and wife, Ayesha, were seriously ill and were being shifted to a hospital.

Later, he was told by his brother that Ahmed had expired on his arrival at South City Hospital while Muhammad also succumbed to his poor health during treatment.

According to South SSP Pir Muhammad Shah, the family had dined out at a restaurant, Arizona Grill, located on Zamzama Boulevard, in DHA Phase V, and had later consumed candy from a shop outside an amusement park, Chunky Monkey, on Sea View Road.

Two minors die after dining out at high-end Karachi restaurant

Authorities had sealed the restaurant for forensic analysis while the police had initiated their own investigation.

The victims' mother is still under treatment at a private hospital. According to Sindh Food Authority (SFA) Operations Director Abrar Sheikh, the restaurant was sealed on Sunday, after news of the minors' deaths surfaced.

Ahsan reached Karachi where his wife told him that she and the children had bought and consumed chocolate and chips from the Chunky Monkey food stall at around 5 pm on Saturday while they had dinner in Arizona Grill at Zamzama at 11 pm. On Sunday, Ayesha said, their health worsened at 2:15 in the afternoon after which Subhan took them to South City Hospital.

The doctors declared Ahmed dead after his arrival at the hospital while Muhammad expired during treatment.

According to Ahsan's brother, the post-mortem of the deceased was conducted at Jinnah hospital by the Clifton police, which also performed other medico-legal formalities. In his statement, Ahsan said he suspected that the substandard food from the food stall and high-end restaurant caused his children's death and wife's ailment.

"I have suspicion over the two food outlets hence I request that investigation against them is undertaken," he said.

After registering an FIR, the police has forwarded the case to the investigation police.

Meanwhile, the maternal grandfather of the deceased children, Muhammad Farooq Abdul Sattar, while speaking to the media outside a private hospital in Clifton said that the family was satisfied with the investigation and the police have also shown their cooperation.

"The medical reports are yet to be delivered after which the situation will become clear," he said, adding that he has appealed to everyone not to pay head to news based on speculations. "We are in a state of shock. We have lost our children," he said, adding that they had informed the police where all the children consumed food from.

The expired meat discovery

In an interesting turn of events, on Tuesday, the SFA claimed to have found expired meat products from a storage facility that they claimed was being used to store the inventory of Arizona Grill. An informant deployed in the area tipped the officials about suspicious activity in the vicinity. When the officials reached the site, accompanied by police personnel, they found a Suzuki pickup being loaded with food items, such as imported meat packages and juice concentrates. The inventory was being brought out of a storage facility located in a side street off main Zamzama Boulevard.

Expired meat from 2015 found in Karachi's eatery being probed for minors' death

On closer inspection, the meat was found to have been imported in 2014 and according to the inscription on the packets, it was supposed to have been used by February 24, 2015. According to Sheikh, over 50 kilogrammes of the meat, juice concentrates and other ingredients used to prepare food were confiscated from the storage facility. He added that on seeing the police, the Suzuki driver fled the scene, while the authorities detained a suspect, Waheed Ali, who revealed that he had been employed by Arizona Grill as a caretaker at the storage facility.

When The Express Tribune reached out to Arizona Grill for comment, Sardar Raziq, who manages their PECHS outlet, rubbished the reports regarding the discovery of expired meat products from its storage facility.

Asked about the SFA's raid at their storage facility, Raziq said that he did not know whose storage facility it was but it had nothing to do with their franchise.

Pointing fingers

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter General Secretary Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the rulers of the province should be ashamed that innocent children are dying after consuming toxic food. He said the corrupt officials of SFA and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) are hand in glove and they are least concerned about the health of the citizens of Karachi.

Speaking to the media outside the Sindh Assembly building on Wednesday, he said drug dens are being run across the province under the patronage of corrupt police officials and the young generation of Sindh is at the receiving end. He said that today, a mother is hospitalised in critical condition and she has lost her children due to the negligence of officials in maintaining hygienic standards in eateries.

He said after this incident nothing has changed, only the rate of bribery has doubled. For people like Anwar Majeed laws are enacted within one day and subsidies are given within one hour, he said, giving an example of a subsidy of Rs4billion given to sick industries in Sindh which were later learnt to be Majeed's.

Sheikh said illegal slaughterhouses are operating on the streets of Karachi, adding that the meat of dead animals is also being sold in the city.

Commenting on the poor state of drinking water and contaminated milk, he said the rulers drink bottled water, but the citizens are given gutter-mixed water to drink. "In Sindh, even vegetables are grown from gutter water and dangerous chemicals are present in poultry feed," he lamented.

"There is not a single forensic laboratory in the city and samples are sent to Lahore for testing," he said, adding that billions of rupees are being spent on the health sector but they are unable to set up a single forensic laboratory.

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