Toppers' scam: key accused Bachcha Rai held

One of the main accused in the Bihar toppers’ scam, Bachcha Rai, principal of the Vishun Roy College, surrendered before the police on Saturday in Vaishali.

Vishun Roy College has been in the eye of storm ever since the arts and science toppers Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shrestha, respectively, could not answer basic questions before the media, thereby exposing the ongoing toppers’ racket in the state.

The chief of Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the scam, Manu Maharaj, however, claimed that police arrested Bachcha from Bhagwanpur area in Vaishali.

However, the absconding principal, against whom an FIR had been lodged along with the former chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board L P Singh, had given prior information to the media before surrendering in front of his college on Saturday. L P Singh, however, continues to evade arrest.

Meanwhile, Ruby Rai, who failed to appear for re-examination on June 3 and was asked to appear for retest on June 11, failed to turn up again on Saturday. The BSEB has withheld her result and given her a last chance to appear for retest on June 25.

Except for Ruby Rai, all the other 13 toppers had earlier appeared for a retest on June 3 which was followed by an interview conducted by a panel of experts.

Barring Saurabh and Rahul Kumar, the other 11 toppers cleared the retest. Saurabh and Rahul, incidentally, were students of the same Vishun Roy College, which is in the eye of storm.

The BSEB had to face huge embarrassment when one of the toppers Ruby Rai (also from Vishun Roy College in Vaishali) could not pronounce her subject political science properly. She created more doubts when she said cooking was taught in political science.

Chief Minister Nitish ordered an SIT probe into the matter following which BSEB chief L P Singh resigned from his post. Later, an FIR was lodged against Singh and others, including Bachcha Rai.

Incidentally, Bachcha, supposed to be close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and the one who supposedly played a key role in helping Lalu’s son Tej Pratap win from Mahua in Vaishali, was arrested an hour after Nitish met Lalu on Saturday morning to wish the latter on his 69th birthday.