Goa: FDA confirms herb in milk is tobacco

PONDA: Following confirmation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the ‘herb’ found in the milk bottle of the infant was edible tobacco, Ponda police are now awaiting the court order on the pre-arrest bail application of the daycare centre manager, Gauri Kamat, to investigate her role in the episode.
Admitting that the FDA report confirmed the herb left inside the milk feeding bottle was edible tobacco, Ponda DySP Nelson Albuquerque said they now await the court decision on the pre-arrest application file by centre’s manager.The court may pass an order on the anticipatory bail plea on October 7, he said.
On September 17, the mother of a one-year-nine-month-old child had found a tobacco-like substance left behind in her child’s feeding bottle. Suspecting that the herb could be a psychotropic substance used to calm down the children at the daycare centre, the parents of the child lodged a police complaint at the Ponda police station on September 18.
Continuing its investigation and after examining CCTV camera footage, the police had arrested the maid at the centre, Renuka Shinde, on September 24. Many office-going parents lodge their infants at the daycare centre. However, to keep the infants from crying, the maid used to feed them tobacco-laced milk to sedate them, police said.