Family of Five Found Dead in Greater Noida Village, Food Poisoning Suspected

Five members of one family were found dead at their home in Nagla Shri Padam village, in the Rabupura area of Greater Noida, on Saturday morning, October 17. Police named the dead as Mahesh, 37, his wife Lalita, 35, and their three children, Laddu, 11, Mishti, 7, and Sakshat, 3.

Police in Gautam Buddh Nagar said they were told about the deaths on Saturday morning, after a crowd gathered outside the house. Senior officers, local police, an ambulance and a team from the Food Safety Department went to the village. A forensic team and a field unit searched the house and collected evidence.

Noodles the night before

Early accounts from neighbours and from Mahesh's mother point to one shared detail. The family ate noodles on Friday night, October 16, and went to bed at about 10 p.m. When no one came out or answered calls on Saturday morning, people nearby grew worried, went in, and found all five dead in bed.

That account has led police to look first at possible food poisoning. Food safety officials collected leftover food, kitchen items and water samples from the house for laboratory testing. Reports from the scene also mentioned frothing at the mouth, but officials have not confirmed what that means, and police have not treated it as proof of a cause.

Police wait for the post-mortem

Greater Noida Deputy Commissioner of Police Shravan Kumar Singh said the Rabupura police station received the information on Saturday morning and that senior officials reached the spot at once. Police have started inquest work, and the bodies are being sent for post-mortem examination.

Officers were clear about the limit of what is known. The exact cause of death will be set only after the post-mortem reports, forensic findings and food sample results come back. Viscera samples will be kept during the autopsies to help with chemical testing. Further legal action will follow those results, police said.

For the village, the facts for now are narrow and hard. A couple and three small children ate together on Friday night, slept, and did not wake up. What killed them is a question the laboratory and the autopsy room have to answer, not the crowd outside the house.