PATNA: Indian police charged a school principal and her husband with murder on Monday over the deaths of 23 children who were poisoned by a mid-day meal, which was contaminated with pesticide.

The children, aged four to 12, fell ill within minutes of eating the lunch of lentils, potatoes and rice cooked at their primary school in a poverty-stricken village in eastern Bihar state on July 16.

The superintendent of police in Saran district, Varun Kumar Sinha, said by phone that headteacher Meena Devi and her husband Arjun Rai faced at least five charges including murder and attempt to murder.

17 die in truck accident

Seventeen people returning from a wedding were killed when the truck they were riding in fell into a gorge in northern India, police said Monday.

Police officer Dinesh Pant said 28 others were injured in the accident late Sunday near Kaladungi, a town about 400 km (250 miles) northeast of New Delhi.