Investigators tell the BBC that they are still unable to determine the true cause of the deaths of an Indian family of four that were discovered in their home over three weeks ago. On April 25, the Dokadia family—Abdullah, his wife Nasreen, and their two daughters Ayesha and Zainab were discovered dead at their Pydhonie neighborhood house in Mumbai.
The story was immediately referred to by Indian media as “watermelon deaths” after the family’s final meal before passing away. In India, the deaths were widely reported in the media, with many headlines cautioning against consuming one of the country’s most beloved summer fruits.
According to reports, the fruit was either poisoned or tainted, and the couple and their teenage children perished as a result of eating it late at night. As a result of the sharp decline in demand, watermelon prices in Mumbai’s fruit marketplaces crashed.
The question of whether the fatalities were accidental or deliberate also generated a lot of conjecture. The Dokadias were killed with zinc phosphide, a very toxic chemical that is frequently used to kill rodents, according to forensic tests conducted by Mumbai police last week. They claimed to have discovered it in the fruit’s leftovers and in their organs.
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