Three people died and one took seriously ill Wednesday in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district after consuming a “natural remedy” for alcohol de-addiction given to them by a self-styled natural medicine practitioner in the backward and impoverished area of the Sedam taluka.
The Sedam police said they have arrested the prime accused in the case, identified as Fakirappa Muthya, a resident of Imadapur, over the deaths. They added the daughter of the woman, who died at a makeshift clinic operated by Muthya, filed a police complaint over the three deaths.
The victims have been identified as Lakshmi Narasimhalu, 45, Ganesh Rathod, 30, and Nagesh Bhimshappa, 29. Lakshmi’s son Ningappa Narasimhalu, 21, has survived.
According to the police complaint filed by Navitha Bhagappa, 23, Lakshmi’s daughter, her mother called her on August 5, informing her about a natural medicine practitioner in Imadapur who could cure the alcohol addiction she and her son Ningappa faced.
Lakshmi reportedly told her daughter to go to the Imadapur village early on August 6 to collect a token to meet Fakirappa Muthya to obtain the medicine. Navitha went to the makeshift clinic of Fakirappa along with her husband and got a token to meet the self-styled medical practitioner.
At around noon, Lakshmi and her son Ningappa arrived at the clinic, and met Fakirappa at around 2 pm and were given medicine in a plastic glass to be consumed on the spot. According to the police complaint, Lakshmi, Ningappa, Rathod, and Bhimshappa collapsed on the spot within minutes of consuming the natural remedy Muthya gave.
“Fakirappa told us nothing had happened to them but asked us to rush them to the hospital and to provide saline drips,” Lakshmi’s daughter said in the complaint.
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The victims were rushed in auto-rickshaws to the Sedam hospital. The doctors informed Navitha that her mother had died, and to rush Ningappa to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences in Kalaburagi city. Rathod and Bhimshappa were also declared dead at Sedam.
Ningappa, who is undergoing treatment at GIMS, has shown improvements in his health since his admission to the hospital, the complaint states.