Poisoned curry: accused's home burnt

Published Feb 16, 2000

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Tokyo - Suspected arsonists on Wednesday burnt down the former home of Masumi Hayashi, a Japanese housewife who is charged with cooking up a poisonous curry that killed four people.

"The fire gutted the first and second floors of the house," said a police official in Wakayama, on Japan's Pacific coast, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hayashi and her husband Kenji, who has admitted insurance fraud, were arrested months after the curry killings following an investigation involving more than 34 000 police.

"Since no one has lived there since their arrest, we suspect the fire was caused by arson," said the police official, adding that an investigation had been launched.

The home no longer belongs to the couple after being seized by tax authorities last year.

The Osaka regional taxation bureau said in April last year it would auction it off to cover for taxes imposed on their huge undeclared insurance benefits totalling about R14,4-million.

Hayashi is on trial charged with preparing the arsenic-laced curry which killed two children and two adults and made 63 others ill at a community festival in July 1988 in the Sonobe district of Wakayama.

The 38-year-old housewife denies murder and attempted murder charges but she has admitted three counts of health insurance fraud for separate incidents. - Sapa-AFP

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