Bahrain: Death of Two Innocent Kids - Parents under a Cloud of Suspicion

Daijiworld Media Network - Bahrain
[With input from GDN]

Bahrain, May 21: The entire Indian community in the Kingdom of Bahrain is yet to recover from the shock-wave received from the news of the death of two kids, who are said to have died of food poisoning on the early morning of Saturday, May 5, 2007. The sad story hit the front-page headlines in all Bahrain-based newspapers.

The parents of the children are under a cloud amidst a web of rumours, while anyone can imagine the mental condition of the parents Mini Saji, a 35-year-old nurse and Saji Varghese, a 38-year-old technical professional from Kerala, who have lost both their kids.

The incident:

The local English dailies reported that 13-year-old Juval Saji and her brother 3-year-old Joel had food with their parents on Friday night, May 4, 2007. It is said that they ate home-cooked food that fateful night.

The kids started vomitting a little while later and around 1 am the parents took the kids to a private hospital in Bahrain. Since there was no doubt about food poisoning, the doctor treated kids for vomiting.

Again around 3 am, the condition of kids worsened and vomiting would not stop. By the time the ambulance arrived to pick up the children, both of them had passed away.

Parents hospitalized:

It is reported that the parents too had been hospitalized for the same food poisoning symptoms. The news of death was conveyed to the mother only after two days, when she had recovered from her illness.

Rumours started spreading one after the other ever since the tragedy had taken place. A few people started talking about the relationship between the husband and the wife. But later the couple clarified that there was absolutely no rift between them.

The couple also rejected the report that they had filed a case against the private hospital for failing to treat the children properly.

"The parents were in a bad state themselves and could not digest the tragedy, and how could they think of filing a suit so soon?", shot back a relative angrily.

The ministry of health has directly involved itself in the investigation and the police are also looking for all possibilities to get at the reason of deaths. The hormone samples have been sent abroad for an advanced lab test. The results are expected by the end of May.

'We did not Kill our children'

A leading Bahrain local English daily has said that the couple spoke to the newspaper first after the tragedy and denied with outrage all stories which said they had killed their own children.

After the ministry of health, on May 13, 2007, ruled out the possibility of food poisoning, suspicions cropped up over their having been drugged or poisoned.

An intruder might have got into their home while the children were alone, the day before they died, Saji suggested to the Gulf Daily News paper in her first interview since the tragedy.

"Substantially high" traces of morphine were found in the children's bodies, sources had revealed earlier.

"Fingers of suspicion are unfairly pointed towards me, because I am in the medical profession and people easily assume that I could have ready access to drugs," said Saji, a nurse at Salmaniya Medical  Complex.

"But I am not allowed to even touch the hospital drug cabinet, because I am not a senior  staff."

Saji Varghese hit back at the suspicions in public minds.

"They think that we tried to kill ourselves and our children too with us. But this is not true,"  he said. "We loved our children more than else in the world and could never even think of doing something that can hurt them."

Medical Centre closed

The dental and surgical sections of the Shifa Al Jazeera Medical Centre in Manama have been temporarily ordered to be closed by the ministry of health on May 16, 2007.

Ministry public relations director Adel Ali confirmed that the inspection which led to the closure order was in response to the deaths of the Indian children Juval Varghese and her brother Joel hours after being treated at the centre.

The children died several hours after being treated for vomiting at the centre and then sent home.

Ali said the ministry took several steps in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, one of which was to inspect the medical centre where they were initially treated.

The inspection exposed discrepancies unrelated to the tragedy and hence the closure order, he said.

Pesticide fumes 'may have killed my children' 

On Saturday May 19, 2007, again speaking to the newspaper Gulf Daily News, Saji Verghese said that his neighbour had treated his apartment with pesticides a day before Juval, 13, and  Joel, 3, died on May 5.

Residents of the building have been summoned to the CID Headquarters, Adliya, for a meeting, at which Varghese and his wife, Mini were to discuss the issue.

"On May 4, before we left for work in the morning, we had closed all the windows, switched on the air-conditioner and the exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom," Varghese said.

"The children usually sleep till 11 am on holidays and, most probably, inhaled pesticide fumes that entered our flat from the neighbour's since morning."

There is very little space between the front doors of the two flats and there is also a gap under the doors, he said. "My wife, who reached home by 3.30 pm, was less affected than the children. I reached home only by 9 pm and thus was the least affected."

Still a mystery

Since the firm cause of death has not been ascertained, not only the Varghese family in Bahrain and Kerala but the entire Indian community in Bahrain is anxious to know the cause. More than that, the bodies of the two innocent kids are still lying in the morgue and the family members back home want to have a final glimpse of the kids.

The Indian mission led by ambassador Dr Balkrishna Shetty has already visited the couple and consoled them over the death of two innocent kids.

Suspense prevails as the mystery behind the deaths will finally be unravelled with the arrival of reports by the end of the month.