A man died and his son was in critical condition after apparently eating watermelon in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district, police said on Saturday.

The incident came days after four members of a family died in Mumbai due to suspected poisoning hours after eating the fruit.

The deceased was identified as Indra Singh Parihar (43), a native of Agar Malwa district who was in the transport business and lived in Sheopur with his family.

His sons Raja and Vinod helped him in the business, said Kotwali police house officer Satyam Singh Gurjar. According to Raja Parihar, the family had pumpkin 'sabzi' for dinner on Thursday night. At around 5 a.m. on Friday, Indra Singh and Vinod (21) felt uneasy, and to get relief they ate a few slices of a watermelon kept in the house.

Both of them fell sick shortly afterwards and were admitted to the district hospital.

Doctors referred Indra Singh to Kota due to his critical condition but he died on the way, said the police official.

Vinod Parihar was undergoing treatment at the district hospital and was on ventilator support, Gurjar said.

The post-mortem examination report of Indra Singh was awaited, the official said.

Last month, four members of a family in Mumbai died under mysterious circumstances. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed the presence of zinc phosphide, used as rat poison, in their viscera as well as in the sample of a watermelon they had eaten the previous night.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.