The Additional District Judge-II of Saran in Bihar on Wednesday held Meena Devi responsible for the death of 23 children over three years ago at Dharmasati-Gandaman primary school of which she then was principal. The children, all aged below ten, died on July 17, 2013 after consuming midday meal.
ADJ Vijay Anand Tiwari however, exonerated Meena’s husband and another accused Arjun Rai from the charges. The quantum of punishment for Meena would be announced on August 29. The couple who had been arrested soon after the grave tragedy are in jail. Meena was arrested a week after the incident and Rai had surrendered later on.
The court order pronounced on the day when report came from another Government school in Khagaria district where over two dozen children were rushed to hospital after they complained of stomach pain and vomiting. They had consumed midday meal in which a lizard was found on Wednesday.
The court however, did not come across any eye witness to claim that the midday meal at Gandaman school was mixed with poisonous insecticides. All the 23 children had died same day or next day in Chhapra hospital and Patna Medical College Hospital, where many more children remained hospitalised and released after full treatment more than after a week.
Arjun was also supplier of midday meal ingredients and was involved in the trade of insecticides also. The court found no concrete proof against him. He said he had full faith in the judiciary and would welcome verdict on his wife.
An FIR with Mashrakh police station under Sections 302, 307, 328 and 120(B) of the IPC had been registered on basis of which police conducted probe. Among the dead and affected children were of the two school cooks Panno Devi and Manju Devi. When principal Meena Devi continued on the run the police broke open her home and found stocks of food and vegetables lying together with pesticides and organic manure. The police reported that seemingly one of the insecticide containers may have been used to measure or store cooking oil.
The Gandaman incident that struck Nitish Kumar Government soon after the CM severed ties with the BJP, was seen as the gravest tragedy related to midday meal scheme. Political conspiracy had also been alleged by the ruling class and even RJD was accused. lalu Prasad’s party was in Opposition at that time and the main accused Meena Devi and Arjun Rai were branded as RJD sympathisers.
Then Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi then had said that traces of organic phosphorous were found in the food served to the kids, most of them below 10 years of age. "It is a criminal case of poisoning," he said. Shahi alleged that the cooking ingredients came from a store run by the school principal Meena Devi's husband Arjun Rai, whom he described as a member of a rival political party, an obvious reference to the RJD.