A woman who was working at a government-affiliated institution reportedly tried to poison her pregnant colleague to stop her from taking maternity leave. The video of the incident triggered anger on social media in China.
According to the reports the woman worker tried to poison her pregnant colleague's drink repeatedly by mixing a powder-like substance. An 11-second video shared on Chinese social media, shows that a woman employee of the Hydrology and Water Resources Investigation Bureau in Hubei province is caught walking to the victim’s desk, opening a small bottle, and pouring a powder-like substance into her cup, before walking away.
A conversation between the pregnant woman and her friends in WeChat uncovered that the pregnant woman felt that her water had a strange taste. Initially, she doubted it was the office’s water supply and switched to boiled bottled water. However, the taste continued even after changing.
She wants to look into the issue after her friend joked that someone in the office was trying to poison her. She then used her iPad to record her desk and ultimately caught her colleague, who was wearing a black vest pouring a powder-like substance into her water bottle before leaving quickly.
The victim reported the incident to police, and an investigation is underway. According to the Chinese media, the powder-like substance is reportedly known to induce miscarriages.
According to the reports, the employee in the act did not want her colleague to take maternity leave as she could not manage the increased workload alone.
On March 18, the Hydrology and Water Resources Investigation Bureau said that they were taking the issue seriously and were waiting for the results of the police inquiry before taking action.
A lawyer said that if the woman’s actions were driven by an intent to harm, it could constitute a crime of injury, regardless of whether the substance was toxic or caused actual physical harm.
Netizens responded to the incident at the government-affiliated institution. One user said that it was so vicious, so terrible, poisoning just because you don't want more work. Another said, "We're all here just trying to earn our bread, why be so malicious? She is too dark."
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina)
