Woman accused of poisoning soup pot at Saigon noodle stand
A woman in Ho Chi Minh City is being investigated after she was accused of putting rat poison in the broth at a noodle stand, allegedly due to family conflicts.
Tran Thi Bach Tuyet, 37, who owns the sidewalk food stand in District 9, came back from the market early on December 25 and noticed a strange smell and color in her soup pot.
She found a bag of rat poison discarded nearby and called the police. She had not served any customer yet.
CCTV camera footage showed that Ho Thi Ngoc Diep, Tuyet’s aunt-in-law, tampered with the broth.
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| The noodle soup pot suspected to have been poisoned. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang |
Diep, 52, then admitted to poisoning the pot, saying there was a land ownership dispute going on in the family. Diep also runs her own noodle stand nearby.
Tuyet went to the police on December 26, asking them to drop the investigation. However, police said this is a serious crime.
An officer said that Diep could be charged for "murder." In Vietnam, attempted murder is treated the same as murder in the prosecution process, but lighter sentences could be considered later.
Tuyet said she used to work for the aunt for VND100,000 (US$4.40) a day. But she needed more money to take care of her four children, so she decided to open her own noodle stand, which she said serves "a lot of customers" every day.
"I really don't want her to go to jail," Tuyet told local media.
