Poisonous fruit kills 14 in Meghalaya

Shillong: Fourteen construction workers from Assam’s Dhubri district died after reportedly consuming ‘chutney’ prepared from a poisonous fruit in a remote place of Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district on Sunday night. The incident took place at Umphum, 15 km from Saipung police station.
The incident came to light late on Monday night following which police went to the area for investigation.
On Tuesday, the bodies of the fourteen labourers were handed over to their families even as police ruled out foul play behind the incident. The post mortem to ascertain the actual cause of the death was conducted at Khliehriat Community Health Centre, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Jahirul Haque (22), Mohammed Inamul Haque (29), Mohammed Mafigul Haque (21), Amal Mani Das (23), Mohammed Mansur Ali (36), Mohammed Karim Uddin Ahmed (18), Majimur Ali (18), Mohammed Sopikul Ali (19), Mohammed Hachan Ali (19), Mohammed Moni Hussain (44), Mohammed Mazid Ali (22), Mohammed Shohidur Hussain (21), Mohammed Jahirul Haque (23) and Mohammed Minal Haque (19).
Preliminary investigation revealed that the labourers had gone to a jungle near their camp and collected the poisonous fruit on Sunday afternoon. They prepared ‘chutney’ and consumed it at night. The next morning, all of them were found dead.
Known to the Jaintia people as ‘soh buit’, the wild fruit is not meant for consumption of humans and animals, said locals. East Jaintia Hills SP MK Dkhar said, “At the moment, we don’t see any foul play behind the incident.”