Twenty-three teenaged students of the school had died after eating their mid-day meals on July 16, 2013, an incident which rocked the state. It, however, acquitted Meena of charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy.
Advertisement
A local court on Monday sentenced the former headmistress of a school in north Bihar to 17 years in prison for the deaths of 22 children and a staffer who died three years ago after consuming insecticide-laced mid-day meal.
Investigators told the court Rai had stored the pesticide alongside the cooking oil, and supplied the contaminated oil to the school.
Last week the court convicted Meena Devi, the school principal in the case. Almost 80 children had eaten food cooked in contaminated oil at the school on the fateful day in July 2013. The mustard oil was used to prepare the soya bean.
The additional district judge II of Saran court Vijay Anand Tiwari sentenced Gandaman primary school principal Mina Devi to 10 years jail term under IPC sections of 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and seven years under section 308 (criminal negligence). She was convicted of sections pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder on August 24.
Besides, it also slapped a fine of Rs 2.50 lakh under section 304 and Rs 1.25 lakh under Section 308 of the IPC on Devi. Her husband Arjun Rai, another accused, was let off for lack of evidence against him by a trial court. Both the principal and her husband were arrested and sent to jail after the mid-day meal tragedy.
Advertisement
Meena Devi was produced in the Court on Monday ahead of the pronouncement of the verdict amidst high security.
