Indian school head arrested over mass poisoning: police

Police on Wednesday, July 24, arrested the head of a school in eastern India where 23 children died after eating a free meal laced with a lethal pesticide, an officer said. The children, aged 4 to 12, fell ill within minutes of eating the lunch of lentils, potatoes, and rice cooked at their primary school in a poverty-stricken village in Bihar state on July 16. Police have been searching for the teacher, Meena Devi, who apparently fled shortly after the tragedy in Gandaman village, which also left some 30 children ill in hospital and sparked angry street protests. Saran district administrator Abhijit Sinha told AFP that the teacher was key to resolving the issue of just how the deadly chemicals ended up in the food. Oil used to cook the food contained an agricultural insecticide that was 5 times the strength sold in the marketplace, a forensic report after the tragedy found.

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