Mumbai: The mystery surrounding the deaths of four members of the Dokadia family further deepened, with new forensic test reports showing no trace of the poisonous zinc phosphide on the knife, plates, rice, chicken pulao, and a herbal rat repellent collected from their Pydhonie home.The first forensic report had found zinc phosphide in the watermelon as well as in their viscera, pointing to death due to poisoning.Police are trying to trace how the poison, which is commonly used against rats, got into the watermelon. They had hoped the second round of forensic tests could have helped them solve the mystery.On April 26 morning, Abdullah Dokadia (40), wife Nasreen (35) and two daughters Aayesha (16) and Zainab (13) died in hospital hours after they had chicken pulao for dinner with five other relatives at their home, and watermelon after midnight.“Police had sent a kitchen knife, three big cooking spoons, four plates, raw rice, chicken pulao, and a bottle of rat repellent spray found from the Pydhonie residence for testing,” said a police source. This week, police received the test report which stated zinc phosphide was negative for all these items.Police are now re-probing all four angles: murder, murder and suicide, mass suicide, and accidental death. “Financial angle is also under probe,” the officer added. Police are still awaiting Zainab’s post-mortem report and the cyber analysis reports of the family members’ phones.
