NEW DELHI — Indian police on Wednesday arrested the headmistress of a
school where 23 children died after eating a meal laced with pesticide
in one of India's deadliest food poisoning outbreaks in years.
The woman, who had been missing for more than a week, was detained while
on her way to court to surrender, said Sujit Kumar, superintendent of
police in Saran district in the eastern state of Bihar.
The children fell ill within minutes of eating a meal of rice and
soybean-potato curry in their one-room school on July 16, vomiting and
convulsing with stomach cramps. Many died, some on the floor of a
hospital where they went for treatment, within hours of consuming the
food.
Forensic tests showed the meal was contaminated with monocrotophos, a
lethal pesticide banned in many countries. Police have said the
headmistress is key to solving the mystery of how the pesticide ended up
in the food.
Police have been searching for the woman since she fled the district
where the school is located. Kumar said she had been hiding in the
district.
The free school lunch was part of India's mid-day meal scheme that
covers 120 million children and aims to fight malnutrition and encourage
school attendance. The program had already drawn widespread complaints
over food safety.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Ross Colvin; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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