20 June,2016 03:47 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
In the latest development in the Bihar toppers scam, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday arrested Bihar School Examination Board's former chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and his wife Usha Sinha from Varanasi. Here’s what the scam is all about
In the latest development in the Bihar toppers scam, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday arrested Bihar School Examination Board's former chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and his wife Usha Sinha from Varanasi. Here's what the scam is all about
The scam
The Bihar toppers scam broke out after a video went viral in which Arts stream topper Rubi Kumari was seen pronouncing political science as 'prodigal science', earlier this month. Rubi did not know about her own subjects. For her, political science was a subject that imparts information about cooking.
Similarly, Saurabh Sresth, who topped in Class 12, did not have the basic knowledge of science. He said that aluminum is an active element in response to a question. But when asked about sodium and electrons, he failed to reply.
Interestingly, Rubi like most of the students in Bihar, wants to become an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. Saurabh wants to become a scientist. Both Rubi and Saurabh are from a college in Vaishali district in Bihar.
That is not all. Rubi is also not aware about the subjects in her Class 12 exams. She revealed that Class 12 exams was of 600 marks but actually it was of 500 marks. She secured 444 out of 500 marks and became the Bihar Arts topper.
The aftermath
BSEB cancelled the result of first and third toppers in the science stream as both failed their re-test and decided to give another chance to the arts topper to appear for a re-test on June 11. A case was registered against the Class 12 toppers in science and arts after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered that an FIR be lodged and the matter probed.
Sensing trouble, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned on June 8. He was later declared absconding by the cops before finally being arrested today. Singh's wife Usha Sinha, former Janata Dal-United (JDU) legislator of Bihar, was also missing since her name also surfaced in the scam. Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, the mastermind behind the Class 12 Board merit list scam in Bihar, was arrested ten days ago after he surrendered to police.
