Bahrain: Children 'swallowed Pesticide Dose' - Top Investigator
By Mandeep Singh - Gulf Daily News Bahrain (GDN)
Manama, May 23: A PESTICIDE dose that killed two Indian children in Bahrain earlier this month was too big to have come from inhalation alone, Bahrain's top investigator said yesterday. Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) crime detection and forensic science director Brigadier Farooq Al Ma'awada, said the large quantity found in their bodies indicated they had ingested the toxin.
The CID is now in the process of determining whether Juval Saji, 13, and her three-year-old brother Joel consumed pesticide accidentally or if it was administered to them deliberately, he told the GDN.
"We are almost certain that pesticide was ingested," he said in an exclusive interview.
"The only thing we have to find out is whether it was accidental or deliberate.
"We are working on that aspect along with the office of the attorney-general."
However, he added the children's Indian parents Saji and Mini Varghese were not considered as suspects, despite being questioned on several occasions.
He stressed they were simply co-operating with authorities.
"In fact, there are no suspects," he said.
"We do not know anything more yet. We shall know soon enough."
All four members of the family had consumed pesticide, but Brig Al Maawada said different amounts were discovered in their bodies.
He revealed the children were found to have consumed the highest amount.
"The mother had a substantial amount, while the father had traces of the toxin," he added.
The two youngsters died on May 5 and authorities have already ruled out food poisoning as a possible cause.
The GDN reported on Sunday that Mr Varghese feared pesticides could have caused the deaths.
He says he sprayed the home with pesticide eight months ago, but added that his neighbour had treated his flat with pesticides a day before they died.
Varghese said that before he and his wife left for work on May 4, they had closed all the windows, switched on the air-conditioner and the exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom.
He believed his children had inhaled pesticide fumes from the neighbour's flat throughout the day, causing them to fall sick later that night.
The parents took their children to Shifa Al Jazeera Medical Centre, Manama, the next morning at around 3am to be treated for vomiting.
At 6am they called an ambulance, but the children were declared dead on arrival at Salmaniya Medical Complex.
Varghese, 38 and his wife Mini Saji, 35, also fell ill and were treated in hospital for several days.
Residents of the building where they live, in Salmaniya, were summoned to the CID headquarters, Adliya, for questioning on Sunday.
The GDN reported on Monday that around 200,000 people, many of them children, are killed by pesticides every year, according to a US-based watchdog group.
The neighbour thought to have had his flat treated with pesticide has so far declined to comment, despite being contacted by the GDN.
Earlier story on Daijiworld: