CCFI white paper disproves Police claim

Mysuru: Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), the apex trade body for the agrochemical industry, has disproved the Police claim that the pesticide Monocrotophos was used in Hanur taluk’s Sulwadi Maramma Temple prasadam poisoning case.

The CCFI, in a statement released at a press conference  held at a private hotel today said, “After the incident of food poisoning on Dec.14, 2018 at the temple, the Police blamed it on the criminal misuse of as much as 15 bottles of Monocrotophos while cooking 15 kgs of anna prasadam (tomato bath) that was given to over 150 devotees. However, the facts in the Police narrative do not add up. The scientific facts brought out in the white paper strongly contradict the conclusion constructed by the Police.”

“While cooking tomato bath, the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius whereas the pesticide Monocrotophos, when heated beyond 58 degrees Celsius, would begin to enter vapour phase and emit toxic fumes. The dark dense fumes coming from the burning pesticide would be several thousand times higher than lethal levels for human beings. This toxic vapour from the kitchen should have caused extensive death of the people assembled at the temple even as the anna prasadam was being cooked. This did not happen,” it states.

It further empirically explains that if indeed 150 people consumed 15 kgs of anna prasadam poisoned with 15 bottles of pesticide, none would have survived in view of the toxic load.

The CCFI white paper also lists out past cases of food poisoning deaths in Karnataka including the one that occurred recently at Gangamma temple. Citing statistics from the Government, it says that food poisoning at the places of mass cooking are not uncommon in India and they should not be mistaken for pesticide poisoning unless established by proper and verifiable scientific evidence.

An Expert Advisor to CCFI S. Ganeshan said, “The current narrative put forth by the Police is completely flawed considering the physio chemical properties of Monocrotophos.”

Criticising the authorities for not providing forensic lab report under Right To Information Act, he said in mass food poisoning cases involving the public such as this, there should be absolute transparency about the forensic findings. The results of forensic lab analysis must be chemical specific, quantitative and based on confirmatory tests.

He further noted that the white paper has already been submitted to various authorities and hoped that it would help do a course correction in the investigations eventually leading to finding out the real cause of food poisoning at Maramma Temple.

It may be recalled that nearly 15 people had died in Sulwadi Maramma Temple prasadam poisoning incident on Dec.14, 2018 and more than 90 victims had undergone treatments at various hospitals in the city.

The Police had arrested the four accused in the case — Immadi Mahadevaswamy, the junior Seer of Salur Mutt in Male Mahadeshwara Hills, who is also the President of the Maramma Temple Trust; Ambika, the Temple Secretary, who has reportedly told the Police that she had poured Organophosphorus (pesticide) into the dish in which the prasadam was being prepared; Madesha, the Temple Manager and the husband of Ambika and Trust Member Chinnappi.  

This claim of CCFI brings the question how the Police went about investigating the case and arrested the accused.