Hindu Couple Loses Claim Against Irvine’s Taco Bell

A Hindu couple in Nebraska failed to convince a judge that Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp. should help pay their way to India because they were inadvertently served meat. Siva Rama Krishna Valluru and wife Sailaja--lifelong vegetarians--said they found meat in rice they had eaten at a Taco Bell restaurant in November. Eating meat is a sin for some Hindus, and the Vallurus wanted the fast-food chain to help pay for a trip to India so they could be cleansed in a purification ceremony in the Ganges River. The company refused, and the couple filed a claim in Lancaster County Small Claims Court, seeking $2,100 each. County Judge Jean Lovell dismissed the claim Wednesday because it did not show the rice was tainted or unfit for human consumption. Valluru, a doctoral student in agriculture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he and his wife plan to go to India anyway. In February, Taco Bell paid an undisclosed amount to settle a suit in Ventura by a Hindu customer for serving him a beef burrito instead of the bean burrito that he ordered.