More than 100 people, including 40 children, fell sick after eating chicken biryani served at an event organised by Tamil Nadu’s ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Friday (13th September). Later, it came to light that the DMK party workers had lured people to the party event by giving them food tokens. However, when the attendees and their children consumed the chicken biryani served at the event, they started vomiting, and nauseating. Subsequently, they were rushed to the Villur Primary Healthcare Centre, where they are currently undergoing treatment.
As per reports, on Friday, the members of the DMK party held a general membership meeting and a welfare distribution ceremony at Villur in Kallikkudi taluk in Madurai district. The meeting was presided over by Madurai South District Secretary Manimaran.
To lure people to the party event, the DMK workers distributed more than a thousand food tokens a day before the event. They also made arrangements to provide chicken biryani to all the participants in the meeting.
After the meeting concluded, the DMK workers gave the attendees a silver plate and a parcel of chicken biryani in a plastic container. Some of the attendees also took it home and shared it with their family members.
After consuming the chicken biryani, more than a hundred people reported symptoms of vomiting and nausea at around eight o’clock in the evening. These included children in the age range of 3 to 14 years.
When the number of patients started increasing, around 10 ambulances were called in to transport them to the healthcare centres in Virudhunagar and Kallikudi.
According to hospital sources, the patients consumed stale food which led to food poisoning.
Following the incident, Thirumangalam Police initiated an investigation into this matter. Further probe is underway in this case.
The tragic development comes months after 65 people died in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi Hooch tragedy. Incidentally, on 18th June 2024, a hooch tragedy occurred in Karunapuram hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district, resulting in at least 65 deaths and 118 hospitalisations.
