Jul 25, 2013 2 min read

NEW DELHI – Nine days after she disappeared, the principal of a school in eastern India where 23 children died after eating a lunch tainted with pesticide was arrested Wednesday by police.

The principal, Meena Kumari, had been on her way to surrender before a judge in Chapra when she was detained by police, the district police chief, Sujeet Kumar, said in a telephone interview.

Kumari was among the most wanted people in India after she fled her school in the village of Dharmasati Gandawa in Bihar’s Saran district when the children in her school started vomiting soon after eating a free lunch.

Forensic tests have confirmed that the cooking oil used to prepare the meal of rice, beans, potato curry and soy balls was contaminated with pesticide. Kumari bought the cooking oil from a store owned by her husband, who might have stored the cooking oil in a container once filled with pesticide, police said.

Since the only other adult at the school was the school’s cook, who also fell deathly ill, Kumari’s departure meant that the ailing children were left to fend for themselves, according to villagers and state officials. Some staggered home to die in the arms of their parents.

The children complained that the meal tasted odd, but Kumari insisted that it was fine, officials said.

In the days after, television journalists picked through parts of Kumari’s empty house, showing rooms filled with old bicycles and other items. Some parents buried their children in front of the school as a way of protesting the deaths.

The Bihar poisoning case has reverberated politically. Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister, has been widely criticized for failing to visit the parents of the dead children and sharing their grief. A recent poll showed that Kumar remains popular in Bihar, but his handling of the school lunch case may tarnish his image.

In a news conference Wednesday evening, Kumar insisted, “This is not a simple case of accidental poisoning.”

He did not say more about the cause of the poisoning.

“The police are investigating the case,” he said. “They have arrested the key accused. It is a matter of further investigation.”

Kumar promised to help those harmed.

“We can’t bring back the dead children,” he said, “but we will do whatever we can for the development of the village and to help the families.”