A 25-year-old woman fed poison-laced food to her sons, aged 5 and 3, before she attempted to commit suicide by consuming poison at Laxminiya Rural Municipality-1 in Dhanusha district on Tuesday. The 3-year-old died in the incident while the other two are receiving treatment at different hospitals.

According to the Area Police Office, Rina Devi Yadav fed poison-laced bread to her 5-year-old son Ritesh and 3-year-old son Ritek. Ritesh is undergoing treatment at Janakpur Zonal Hospital while Rina has been admitted to Janaki Health Care.

Dr Raman Mishra at the health care said Rina, who is in a critical condition, has yet to regain her consciousness.

Preliminary investigation showed that Rina had gone to Janakpur along with her two sons on Monday following a family dispute. Villagers found Rina and her sons in a paddy field on Tuesday along with a bottle of insecticide and poison-laced bread. The locals rushed the trio to a hospital but could not save 3-year-old Ritek. His body was taken to the zonal hospital for postmortem.

Investigation officers quoted Ritesh as saying that his mother force-fed the poisoned bread to his younger brother while he himself refused to eat it as the bread had a foul odour.

The reason behind the dispute that led to this tragic incident is still not clear, police said.