Girl gang-raped for three months in Dholpur

Shillong, May 9: The poisonous mushrooms that killed six people at a remote village in Meghalaya's West Jaintia Hills district have been identified as Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the 'Death Cap', a senior official said on Saturday.

Six people, including a 14-year-old girl, of Lamin village along the India-Bangladesh border in Amlarem civil sub-division died after consuming wild mushrooms they collected from a nearby forest late last month.

The wild mushroom has been identified as Amanita phalloides and is hepatotoxic as it directly affects the liver, state Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told PTI.

He said it has been established after an investigation that the cause of the deaths was the poisonous mushrooms.

At least 18 persons from three families were taken ill after consuming the mushrooms.

The symptoms after consuming the poisonous fungus include vomiting, headache and unconsciousness, the senior doctor said.

Most of those taken ill, including a pregnant woman, have already recovered and gone home. Therefore, people can survive as it depends on the amount of poison that you have consumed. Only one person was unaffected, maybe he did not consume much, he said.

Three people are still undergoing treatment and are recovering. Two of them are at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) and one in Woodland Hospital, Dr War said.

He said the health department can only appeal to the people, especially those in the rural areas, to refrain from eating wild mushrooms, while the horticulture department should take measures to create awareness.

Tikamgarh, Jul 25: Promise of providing housing to the poor has been made by both Centre as well as State governments but a Dalit family in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh is forced to live in a toilet for the last several years.

However, the administration denied that the family is living in the toilet.

Maganlal Ahirwar, his wife and four children live in Keshavgarh Gram Panchayat of Mohangarh area of Tikamgarh district. All of them have been living in the toilet for four years. Ahirwar's wife Phula Devi said she told the authorities several times that her family didn't get house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, but no one listened. The couple even got their daughter married in the same toilet.

They even got an electricity connection and gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme.

Mohangarh tehsildar Dr. Abhijeet Singh told media persons, "I got to know about the case and have asked for the report. Maganlal Ahirwar came to the office two-three days ago and denied that he was living in the toilet with his family. He has an ancestral house in the village."

He might have lived in a toilet earlier but currently he is not living there, Dr. Singh added.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 22:An accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act jumped into the sea on Wednesday morning when he was taken for evidence collection at Kasaba in Kasargode district, police said.

Accused Mahesh was arrested following a complaint by his neighbour on Tuesday evening.

The police said that they took the accused to the seashore to collect evidence in the case when Mahesh jumped into the sea. Two police officials too jumped in after him to catch hold of him but could not locate Mahesh.

Later, swimmers were deployed to try and locate the missing man.