After being served a show-cause notice by the State education department, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh on Wednesday resigned from his post in view of the irregularities in the conduct of the Class 12 exams. The Special Investigation Team of the police, formed on Monday to probe the irregularities, has detained seven people and issued summons to three toppers against whom a police complaint was filed on Tuesday.
“Yes, we’ve received the resignation of Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh,” confirmed the State’s Education Minister Ashok Choudhary. Patna Commissioner Anand Kishore has been asked to take charge as BSEB chairman. The BSEB secretary Harihar Nath Jha has also resigned and was replaced by Anup Sinha. On Tuesday, the SIT had questioned Mr. Singh for five hours and had seized the Board’s computer hard disk and laptop.
Mr. Singh had earned the wrath of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by constituting a three-member judicial committee on his own to probe the irregularities. The State government later dissolved the committee and set-up an SIT to probe the result irregularities with “criminal angle too”.
Investigating officers said that all together four people have been detained for interrogation.
Toppers get summons
A team of the SIT also went to the homes of the three toppers — Saurabh Kumar, Rahul Kumar and Ruby Rai — and served summons. All three are students of V.R. College in Vaishali and are said to be absconding. A police team also went to the V.R. College on Tuesday evening, when the influential director of the college, Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, was said to be present but he went missing even before the police could reach him. Bachcha Rai is an RJD leader and comes from a politically influential family of Vaishali district. He had even campaigned hard for Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the last Assembly elections.
However, on Tuesday, Lalu Prasad distanced himself from Bachcha Rai.
“Who is Bachcha Rai? How did he make so many toppers? If anyone has committed crime he should be sent to jail…the image of Bihar has been tarnished because of the irregularities,” he had said.
