Mahesana

With two more people dying last night, the total number of deaths due to suspected poisonous Bhang (hemp plant leaves) consumption on the occasion of Mahashivratri in Budasan village under Kadi police station of Mahesana district has risen to three with over a hundred people still under treatment at various places.

Mahesana SP Chaitanya Mandlik today said that Mukesh Marwadi (33), resident of Karannagar near Budasan and Nattuji Thakor (35), resident of Budasan died last night. The villagers had cremated them without informing the police.

‘We came to know about it later. Earlier one 17 year old local lad Vipul Thakor had died owing to the consumption of the Bhang distributed near a local temple,’ the SP said adding that people are saying that the Bhang mixed drink became poisonous owing to the inclusion of Datura seeds.

He, however, added that the investigation of the matter has been handed over to the Forensic Science Lab and its report is awaited.

Over 250 people had fallen ill after the consumption of Bhang mixed prasad near a temple in Budasan on Monday.

Datura also called Jimson weed or devil’s snare is a highly hallucinating substance and has some medicinal properties as well. At times it is mixed in the Bhang to increase its ‘punch’.

– DeshGujarat