Shillong: 14 labourers found dead after consuming wild fruits

Fourteen labourers hailing from Assam's Dhubri district died in their camp at a remote village in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district after allegedly consuming poisonous wild fruits, police said on Tuesday.

All the deceased were working at a road construction site at Umphung village, which is about 15 km away from Saipung in the district, they said.

"We were informed of the incident on Monday and at present the post mortem is being conducted at Khliehriat, the district headquarters," East Jaintia Hills Superintendent of Police (SP) M K Dhkar said.

The post-mortem is being conducted to find out the exact cause of death. All the deceased have been identified and are from Dhubri district, he said. Preliminary investigation revealed that these labourers had gone to the nearby jungle and collected poisonous wild fruits on Sunday afternoon.

The same was grounded together and consumed before they all went to sleep on Sunday night. All the workers were found dead on Monday morning and the suspicion was that they had consumed poisonous fruits, police said.