Earlier today, police confirmed that the school lunch that killed 23 kids and sickened 25 more in northern India was indeed contaminated with pesticide.
Police said "very toxic" levels of the pesticide monocrotophos had been detected by scientific tests.
Vegetable oil used to prepare the food was revealed to be highly contaminated.
"It was the high quantity of monocrotophos insecticide found in the food which proved fatal for the schoolchildren", said Ravindra Kumar, a top police official in Bihar state capital Patna.
He was speaking after forensic science experts in Saran district issued the results of tests carried out on the cooking oil.
On Friday, police said they suspected the vegetable oil had been in a container previously used to store the pesticide.
The oil had been brought to the school by principal Meena Kumari after she bought it from her husband's grocery store. One of the cooks complained it looked discolored and smelled bad, but Kumari ordered her to use it anyway. So this tragedy is now officially a criminal act. Kumari fled with her husband after the deaths became public, and now she's in a world of trouble. How much?
Meena Kumari, who is still at large, is wanted on suspicion of criminal negligence, justice authorities say.
Saran District Magistrate Abhijit Sinha told the BBC that if she failed to turn herself in to police, her property would be seized.
Suffice to say that Kumari is India's most wanted woman. Given the uproar going on in the area--cars burned, trains blocked, teachers at another school being beaten up--the safest place for her right now is probably prison.
I did some reading on monocrotophos, and what I found is really scary. According to its Wikipedia article, it's highly toxic not only to humans, but also to birds, shellfish and other wildlife. It's banned in the United States and several other countries. In India itself, it's banned for use on vegetables since 2005, but is still used illegally. In other words--we're really lucky that this wasn't even worse than it was.