Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

These images show four siblings being reunited with their mother who tried to kill them with rat poison in 1994.

The four siblings visited their estranged mother, identified as Neelamma, 60, at a woman’s shelter in the locality of Injambakkam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

In 1994, the mum, who suffers with mental health issues, mixed rat poison into food which she then gave to her husband and four children following a family row, according to local media.

She then left the home, believing her family members were dead. However, a neighbour reportedly saved her husband Anjayya, sons Rajesh Khanna and Santosh Kumar and daughters Kavitha and Mayuri, and they made full recoveries in hospital.

Anjayya, who ran a photo frames shop, died in 2017.

It is unclear what happened to Neelamma after the reported poisoning incident, but she reportedly refused to speak to her family members in the subsequent years.

She was spotted by a resident in February 2019 who alerted the NGO the Little Hearts Society who are now caring for her.

Little hearts Society project director Rita Iyyappan said: “Bit by bit, she began speaking about her family.

“Until then she refused to talk to her sons, daughters and sons-in-law and refused to go with them.”

With the help of the police and their records from the 1990s, the NGO was able to track down her family members.

After seeing her for the first time since 1994, her son Santosh Kumar told local media: “I spoke about some of my naughty acts, including breaking a mud pot and damaging a photo frame. Slowly, recognition dawn on her.”

According to reports, the reunion at the NGO’s office was emotional and the four siblings gave a written undertaking to the police and took their 60-year-old mother home with them.

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