Bihar midday meal tragedy: Arrest warrant issued against headmistress

A Bihar court on Monday issued an arrest warrant against Meena Devi, the headmistress of the Chhapra school where 23 children died after consuming their midday meal. Devi has been absconding since the deaths of the children and was suspended from her post after the Bihar police filed an FIR against her last week. “There is no trace of her. The administration has decided to attach her property to put pressure on her to come forward,” Saran Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar had said on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_975831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Bihar police on Monday issued an arrest warrant against Meena Devi. AFP[/caption] According to district officials probing the incident, Meena Devi had forced the cook to use contaminated oil despite the latter’s complaint that it had a pungent smell. Forensic tests on the food served to the children confirmed that the food was poisoned, and also contained the alarming revelation that it contained five times the poison levels found in insecticides and pesticides. [embedalsosee] The Bihar state government has alleged that both the head mistress and her husband were responsible for the deaths, saying that her disappearance, along with the male members of her family, showed that she was involved in the incident in some way. Meanwhile, earlier today, alleged NSUI activists protested outside the residence of Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi’s residence in Patna. The activists, who were carrying flags of the NSUI shouted slogans against the state government for its ‘failure’ to implement the midday meal scheme effectively in the state. On Sunday, the Bihar government suspended an education department official who was responsible for monitoring the midday meal of the school, officials said. With agency inputs