24 or 42? Bihar Class 12 arts topper Ganesh Kumar arrested after row over age, result also suspended

The Bihar board’s arts stream topper was arrested and his result cancelled after allegations of fraud on Friday, a move that put the spotlight again on the state’s notorious education sector that has often been hit by cheating scandals.

Last year’s arts topper Ruby Rai had landed in a controversy after it was found that she did not know what political science was. Rai and three other disgraced toppers of Bihar’s Class 12 exams were later arrested, resulting in the uncovering of an examination racket that fixed results in exchange for cash.

This year, Ganesh Kumar, a student of RNSJN Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Samastipur, was declared the topper of Class 12 examination from arts stream. Kumar, who secured 82.6%, allegedly fudged his age.

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor said Kumar’s age was 42 years but he had declared it as 24. “We have decided to lodge an FIR against him and he will be arrested soon. His result and candidature stands suspended,” Kishor said before the arrest.

The BSEB also sent a showcause notice to Kumar, asking him to explain his conduct within three days.

Neha Kumari of LNGRS Plus Two Girl’s School of Rajnagar, Madhubani, is now likely to be elevated as the topper. She has secured 80.6% marks.

Kumar faced criticism after it emerged that he didn’t know the difference between prose and poetry. To Kumar, who also topped music, the difference between “sur” (notes) and “taal” (meter) was whether one spoke loudly or softly.

Kumar’s marksheet showed he scored 92 in Hindi, 78 in the second language, 83 in music, 80 in history, 80 in social studies and 59 in psychology.

After criticism, the Bihar government and the BSEB rubbished the allegations on Thursday and said there was no evidence of irregularities in the state board results and that all answer books had been cross-checked.

“Why are you being so negative? There is no topper scam. The toppers have topped on merit,” state education minister Ashok Choudhary had said.

Of the 12.40 lakh students, who took the Class 12 examination conducted by the BSEB this year, just 4.37 lakh or 35.25% managed to clear the board exam, officials said on Tuesday. Last year, 11.55 lakh students had appeared in the exam and 7.18 lakh or 62.19% cleared it