Nine days after she went in hiding, the principal of an Eastern India school was arrested after 23 students died from eating lunch contaminated with oil, Fox News reported on July 24.

Meena Kumari reportedly fled Bihar when the children began getting sick after eating the lunch cooked at the school. Twenty-three children between the ages of 5 and 12 died after eating the meal and many others fell ill. Forensic tests revealed that the food contained toxic levels of a deadly pesticide.

Fox News also reported that police superintendent Sujit Kumar said a police team investigating the deaths arrested the principal on July 24 and authorities asked her how the pesticide got into the food.

The school's cooks have told authorities that the principal controlled the food for the government-provided free daily lunch and the education minister said the principal bought the ingredients for the meal from a shop owned by her husband, who has fled.

One of the cooks said that the cooking oil looked unusual, but that Kumari told her to use it anyway.

On Wednesday, Bihar's chief minister and top elected official, Nitish Kumar, said anyone involved with the tragedy would be punished.

"No one will be spared," Kumar told reporters, adding authorities were working to regulate school lunches to prevent this from happening again.

India's midday meal plan is one of the world's biggest school nutrition programs. State governments are allowed to decide on menus and timings of the meals.

Although there have been complaints in India about the quality of the food in schools and the lack of hygiene, the incident in Bihar appeared to be the first one for this massive food program.

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