10-Year-Old Girl Dies After Eating Her Birthday Cake
A 10-year-old girl dies from suspected food poisoning after consuming a birthday cake ordered online, sparking a police investigation into the alleged fly-by-night cloud kitchen responsible.
A day of celebration turned into a deadly nightmare for a family in Patiala, Punjab. A happy & jolly 10-year-old girl named Manvi was celebrating her birthday with her family on 24th March 2024. The family had ordered Manvi’s favorite - Chocolate Cake from a bakery online through Zomato. As per the tradition, Manvi cut the cake in the midst of her family singing happy birthday to her and then her family went on to feed the cake to her. Look at this video. See how happy Manvi & her family are. Soon after eating the cake, Manvi started feeling thirsty & complained of discomfort in her throat and mouth. Following it, Manvi’s family also started showing symptoms of food poisoning. They felt uneasy & nauseous. After some home remedies, Manvi went to bed for the night but woke up vomiting at around 3:00 am in the morning of 25th March 2024. Her condition worsened & her family rushed her to a local hospital. The doctors conducted an electrocardiogram. It is a diagnostic test to measure the heart’s signal activities and put Manvi on oxygen support as she was unable to breathe properly. Unfortunately, Manvi could not survive and was pronounced dead later. The family has alleged that Manvi’s birthday cake was contaminated and have filed a case with the police against the bakery & its owner under Indian Penal Code Section - IPC 273: sale of noxious drink or food and IPC 304-A: causing death by negligence. The police have sent cake samples as well as Manvi’s body for testing and are awaiting its results. When questioned by the police, the alleged bakery from where the delivery person had picked up the cake denied that it was delivered from there. That's when Manvi's family informed the police that the name of the bakery on the bill and the actual shop on Zomato didn’t match. This suggested that the bakery is not a full-fledged bakery but a “fly-by-night cloud kitchen”. Such kitchens often have a small setup with minimal infrastructure and run different eatery brands from one central location to save time & money and make their work easier. The police feel this is a matter of concern and are investigating the continuous name-changing of the bakery simultaneously. Manvi’s family have also accused the local health department of incompetence. They claimed that the first police report was registered 5 days after Manvi’s death. Manvi’s grandfather told news reporters that the health department officer refused to take the sample of the cake they had eaten and rather insisted that they will take samples only from the bakery from where it was ordered. A Zomato spokesperson expressed their grief on Manvi’s tragic death and said that Zomato immediately delisted the bakery from its platform as soon as it got to know about the incident. Zomato has also debarred the bakery owner from operating any eatery joint on its platform and have said that they are ready to fully support and cooperate with the authorities.
