The duo was said to have eaten parotta with chicken gravy and had local soft drinks brought from a hotel located on Kadalaiyur Road in Kovilpatti.

Sources said it’s a suspected case of suicide as Karpagam could have consumed the soft drink laced with pesticide before giving it to her daughter.

However, Food Safety officers collected samples from the hotel and the exact cause of their death would be ascertained later based on a post mortem report, Kovilpatti East Inspector of Police Sujith Anand said.

According to Kovilpatti RDO V Sankaranarayanan, apart from Karpagam and her ill-fated daughter, her son also ate the same food that the duo had, but the boy refused to consume the soft drink.