Gandaman Primary School cook Manju Devi at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The midday meal tragedy has left three women in different states of mind.

While cooks Manju Devi and Pano Devi are gradually overcoming trauma, Gandaman Primary School principal Meena Devi is all set to take a polygraph test. The jailed principal would undergo the test at the state forensic science laboratory in Patna under the supervision of an expert from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi.

An investigating officer said a CFSL expert has consented to come to Patna. “We are looking for a doctor to assist the forensic expert,” he said, adding that the test would be conducted in a day or two as the court had granted permission for it.

The test date might coincide with the release of the cooks from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) where they had been admitted on July 16 following the tragedy. “The 24 children who have survived have responded well to treatment until now. Manju Devi and her three children were in a serious condition. Manju Devi has been undergoing psychotherapy sessions besides the normal treatment. Though she is keeping strong and has recovered, her fight is still on unlike the children who are happy and smiling yet again,” PMCH superintendent Amar Kant Jha Amar said.

Sources in the hospital said she still suffers from fear and guilt. “She has time and again told the attending doctors and nurses that she will not be able to face the families of the children who died eating the food she had cooked. It is clear that she is not directly involved in the tragedy. The attending doctors and nurses of the ward keep on telling her that it is not her fault. She worries about facing the families of the deceased when she goes back to the village, which is her home too,” an official at the paediatric ward of the hospital said.

Superintendent Amar, however, felt that she had improved a lot. “She was depressed but getting gradually out of it now,” he added.

Pano Devi will also step out of the PMCH with a broken heart and a huge loss. “She too was in a state of shock as she lost two children — a son and daughter. While one of them was brought dead to the PMCH, the other died during treatment. One of her daughters could be saved and she has almost recovered. While the families of the 24 children who have survived are quite relieved now, these two women have definitely lost something within themselves,” a doctor said.

Clinical psychologist Binda Singh said: “Manju needs more attention. Her state is said to be of panic disorder.”