Rat poison or foul play? Mumbai Police revisit Pydhonie home after toxin found in family’s final meal
2 min readMumbaiMay 8, 2026 10:41 PM IST
With zinc phosphide — primarily used in rat poison — consumption being the cause of death of four members of a family after they ate watermelon, Mumbai Police Friday searched the deceased’s residence once again to see if any rat poison remnants were found.
On the night of April 25, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen Dokadia (35) and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zainab (13) residing in Pydhonie area of south Mumbai had dinner with five other relatives. Around 1.30am, the family of four ate a watermelon and passed away in the next 12 hours.
“No remnants were found in the house apart from a rat repellent that we had found at their second floor residence on day one. We checked a bottle but it does not contain zinc phosphide but is a herbal concoction,” an officer who was part of the probe said.
Relatives of the Dokadia family said their residence had a rat problem as did several flats in the building. “They did use several things like rat repellents and glue pads to deal with the problem,” the officer said.
The officer said while in the initial statements they did not probe the family much, they will now be recording the statements of four brothers and two sisters of Abdullah Dokadia who reside near their residence.
“The only possibilities that remain are either someone in the house may have poisoned the watermelon or it may have been mixed in supply chain,” the officer said.
When asked about a video circulating on social media platforms where a fruit vendor is seen putting rat poison around a food stall, the officer said, “That incident took place in February and pertains to a food stall in Malad. An FIR was registered at Malad police station and has nothing to do with our case.”
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Senior police inspector of Malad Dushyant Chavan said they had questioned the vendors and found that when closing the stall at night, they had put rat poison around the stall to prevent rats but nothing has been put in the fruit.
