Nineteen of the children's bodies were buried on or near<unk>  grounds in protest. Across<unk> , numerous students refused to eat their<unk> s in the days following the incident. On 17 July, hundreds of Mashrakh residents took to the streets in protest. Demonstrators lit fires and burned effigies of<unk>  Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The flames damaged four police vehicles. Others threw stones at the police station and chanted slogans denouncing the government. Some villagers demanded that the Midday<unk>  program be scrapped. Angry protesters carrying sticks and poles blocked roads and rail lines. Desks and chairs from the<unk>  were taken and smashed, while the kitchen area was destroyed. In nearby Chhapra, multiple arson attacks were reported, including reports that a crowd set fire to a bus, but no injuries were reported from either city.<unk>  State Education Minister Shahi commented that many people involved in the program are looking for easy money and that "it is just not possible to taste<unk> s in all the 73,000<unk> s before children eat the food." He also alleged that the contaminated oil had been purchased from a member of a rival political party. Opposition party members accused the ruling Janata Dal (United) party of acting too slowly and called for a general strike. The<unk>  government promised a thorough investigation and offered INR 200,000 (US$3,400) compensation for families of the dead children. Kumar called an emergency meeting and dispatched forensic experts to Mashrakh. The headmistress and her husband fled after the deaths became public knowledge, and the administrative authority suspended her. A First Information Report was filed against the headmistress for criminal negligence, and police began searching for her. A district magistrate told the BBC that her property would be confiscated if she did not surrender to the authorities. She was apprehended by police in Chhapra on 24 July and held on suspicion of murder and criminal conspiracy. In October 2013 the headmistress and her husband were charged with murder and faced the death penalty if convicted.
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Arsenic poisoning cases
Mental illness in fly-in fly-out workers
Camelford water pollution incident
Lists of poisonings
United States military veteran suicide