Maharashtra Police on Friday arrested a woman for allegedly poisoning a meal that led to the deaths of five people in Raigad district’s Mahad village, the Hindustan Times reported. Police said the accused, 23-year-old Pradnya Survase, claimed that her husband and his family members used to insult her for having dark skin.
The accused mixed poison in the meal served at a house-warming party hosted by her mother-in-law’s sister. Over 100 people who had eaten at the party suffered from food poisoning.
“Pradnya [Survase] claims that since her marriage two years ago, she has been insulted regularly for her dark complexion and accused of not being able to cook well,” Senior Inspector Vishwajeet Kaingade told the Hindustan Times. “She has named her mother in-law, Sindhu Survase, husband Suresh Govind Survase, sisters-in-law Ujwala Pawar and Jyoti Ashok Kadam, and her mother-in-law’s sister Sarita Mane for the alleged torture.”
The deceased, however, do not include any of the people she accused of harassing her. “When we questioned Survase, she seemed jittery and broke down immediately,” Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar told The Indian Express. “During interrogation, she said that while her in-laws had already eaten by the time she could poison the food, she still went on to poison the food and served it to people at the programme.”
The deceased have been identified as Gopinath Nakure and four children – Kalyani Shingude, Pragati Shinde, Rishikesh Shinde and Vijay Shinde.
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