M A I N   N E W S

Contaminated milk leaves 50 ill 
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 12
About 50 persons, including body-builders, spectators and some journalists, were taken ill after they allegedly consumed contaminated soya milk during the Punjab Open Body-Building Championship being organised in the Libra Health Club on the Ludhiana-Ferozepore road this afternoon. Five persons, including two journalists of a TV channel, were reported to be in a serious condition.

At least 40 victims were hospitalised in DMC and Raghunath Hospital and the remaining discharged after first-aid. The majority of the sick persons were body-builders who had come to take part in the championship from several parts of the state.

The district administration ordered the immediate sealing of the remaining quantity of the soya milk and the district health official took samples of the allegedly contaminated milk. A case under relevant sections amounting to causing physical harm to someone by negligence was being registered against the organisers of the tournament and owners of the club.

The Division No. 5 police is learnt to have detained some workers and family members of the club owner for questioning. The police sources said a case would be registered after knowing the exact cause of the incident.

The trouble, according to some players who had not taken the soya milk, began around 3 p.m.

One after the other, the players participating in the championship began vomiting and bleeding from the nose and complained of acute abdominal pain. Some spectators also followed suit. Three journalists of a TV channel — D.S. Grewal, Satpal Aseem and Deshraj Ashu — who were covering the championship also developed similar symptoms.

Mr Rahul Kumar, a body building coach, said his students were performing well when several of them fell sick. As the number of people falling ill grew, someone called up the DMC and other hospitals, which immediately sent ambulances and took away the victims.

According to Dr Sandeep Puri, Medical Superintendent, DMC, some toxic element in the drink had caused the sickness. He said the sickness was of a serious nature as some patients were even vomiting blood. Dr Yogesh Malik, casualty in charge of the hospital, and Dr R. Mahajan said the patients came in a flood and special rooms were opened to adjust them. They said while the number of patients brought was more than 50, only about 35 required hospitalisation.

The scene at the Emergency and trauma ward of the hospital was pathetic. Well-built youths were crying in acute pain, clasping their stomachs. They were vomiting and spitting blood. Some were bleeding from the nose also. Dr Navtej, attending the patients, said the condition of most of them was improving.

Mr Malvinder Singh Jaggi, SDM (West), said the samples of the allegedly contaminated milk have been collected by the Civil Surgeon’s office. As per the reports reaching him, the club was manufacturing the soya milk on its own and had been serving it to its players and during the past championships also.

The incident caused an alarm in the city as relatives of the sick persons rushed to the DMC and Raghunath hospitals. The hospitals were flooded with telephone calls from several parts of the state as anxious parents of the victims called up to inquire about their health.

The following were admitted at DMC and Raghunath Hospitals:

Imran, Sukhdev Singh, Rajan, Rinku, Jatinder, Munish, Sunil, Altab, Raju, Jasbir, Amandeep Singh, Soma, Yashpal Sharma, Mohd. Akhtar, Jasdev Singh, Anil, Manav, Raj Kumar, Tapsi Ram, Amit, Mohammed Hanif, Kamal, Sandeep, Navin, Lalit, Soni, Asif, Mohammed Feroz, Shamsher, Iqbal Singh, D.S. Grewal, Satpal Aseem and Deshraj Ashu.