A 16-year-old boy died on Wednesday, two days after he consumed prasadam at a temple in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district. At least 20 others who also consumed the prasadam have been hospitalised since then. The prasadam was served to devotees at the Veerabhadreshwara Swamy temple in Nidagal village of Pavagada taluk.
The boy, identified as Veerabhadra hailing from Sira taluk in the district, died on Wednesday morning after failing to respond to treatment.
Following this, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy spoke to K Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Tumakuru and gathered details about the incident. Sources in the CM’s office said that contaminated water was behind the tragedy.
The CM has ordered DC Rakesh Kumar to visit the spot and carry out an inspection. He has also sought the report submitted by the District Health Officer.
According to district officials, a special ceremony was held at the Tumakuru temple on Monday, which attracted scores of devotees from Bengaluru and various taluks in the district. The devotees consumed the prasadam (a devotional offering made to god, typically food) served at the temple. After they returned home, over 20 of them who had visited from Sira taluk were admitted to the taluk hospital on Tuesday after they began vomiting.
Presently, several devotees who had returned home to Bengaluru are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in the city while some others are admitted in a hospital in Sira.
The incident comes after a similar tragedy in December 2018 when 17 persons died in Chamarajanagar district after consuming temple prasadam that was poisoned over a petty rivalry between two groups.
A week after the incident, a seer and three others, including a woman, admitted to poisoning the prasadam. A preliminary investigation had already revealed that the seer allegedly wanted to take revenge against rival trustees who had taken over the temple management, following a dispute over building a turret over the sanctum sanctorum.
That tragedy prompted the government to order all temples in the state to take prior permission before serving prasadam to devotees. All temple bodies were also directed to install CCTV cameras in their kitchens, as part of the same order.