Mid-day meal: 14-day judicial custody for principal's husband

A court in Bihar's Saran district on Monday sent Arjun Rai, husband of the principal of a school where 23 children died after eating contaminated food in July, to 14 days judicial custody after he surrendered.

Arjun Rai, who was absconding, surrendered at the court of chief judicial magistrate. “Rai surrendered after the court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him and dismissed his anticipatory bail plea last week,” a district police official said.

Rai has been accused of purchasing the poisonous pesticide that got mixed in meal served to children at the school.

The police have also filed a petition to take him on police remand and to conduct a polygraph test.

Meena Devi, the principal of the government primary school at Gandaman village in Saran district, was arrested a week after mid-day meal tragedy and was sent to judicial custody by a court in Saran. She is named as an accused in the case.

Devi underwent a lie detector test last month.

According to district officials, Meena Devi allegedly forced the cook to use contaminated cooking oil despite the latter's complaint that it had a pungent smell.

A forensic lab report confirmed the presence of toxic insecticide traces in the cooking oil.

The poisonous substance, organophosphorus, in the oil samples collected from school was more than five times the commercial preparation available in the market.