Indian police have arrested Meena Kumari, a head teacher of a school in the eastern Bihar state of India where 23 children died after eating food contaminated with insecticide, BBC News reported. She handed herself in on Wednesday. Police now believe she can help explain how the deadly insecticide monocrotophos ended up in the free school lunch. All total, 47 primary school children have gotten sick after consuming the meal of rice and soybeans, news reports said.
In what is deemed as a Mid-Day meal scheme, the program was meant to combat hunger and to boost school attendance, it provided free food for 120 million children in 1.2 million schools throughout India. But BBC News reported that it often suffers from poor hygiene, and poisoning outbreaks occur occasionally.
"Teachers and the headmasters have to manage the scheme with little help, low-quality food and corruption at every level," said B Sharma, head of the primary school teachers' association. "But when such an incident happens, a teacher or the principal is held responsible."
Indian police indicated that scientific tests detected a "very toxic" level of the insecticide in the meals, and that the vegetable oil used to prepare the food was highly contaminated.
"It was the high quantity of monocrotophos insecticide found in the food which proved fatal for the schoolchildren," said Ravindra Kumar, a top police official in Bihar state capital Patna.
Meena Kuman was arrested just as she was entering the courthouse to turn hersef in. She faces charges of murder and gross negligence, according to police.
There have been widespread violent protests following the deaths and children across India since the deadly meals were made public.
