Punjab: Mother and Lover Accused of Poisoning Three Children in Sangrur
Three children died in Sangrur on August 26 after eating herbicide-laced sweets; police allege their mother and her lover plotted the killings.
Police in Punjab's Sangrur district have uncovered what they describe as a conspiracy behind the deaths of three young children, who died on August 26 after eating sweets mixed with herbicide.
The children were identified as six-year-old Jasnoor Kaur, five-year-old Armandeep Singh and two-and-a-half-year-old Rehandeep Singh. Their deaths were initially treated as a case of food poisoning, but investigators later found evidence pointing to a planned killing.
A case was registered on a complaint by the children's father, a truck driver.
According to senior police officer Ravjot Kaur Grewal, the children's mother, Lovepreet Kaur, was allegedly in a relationship with a man named Harjit Singh. Investigators suspect the two came into contact through Instagram and later planned to eliminate the children.
The probe found that the children had eaten sweets brought from a market on Raksha Bandhan, after which their health deteriorated. Suspicion grew when others who had eaten sweets from the same shop showed no signs of illness. Investigators later concluded that herbicide had been mixed into the sweets given to the children.
Lovepreet Kaur has been arrested, while raids are under way to trace Harjit Singh. Police are also carrying out a forensic examination of the suspected poisonous sweets and other material gathered during the investigation.