Bihar Class XII topper arrested, result cancelled

Ganesh Kumar has been charged for hiding his real age

In a repeat of last year's events, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on Friday cancelled the result of Class XII topper in the Arts stream Ganesh Kumar and arrested him for committing forgery, among other charges, a top BSEB official said.

"Kumar has been charged for hiding his real age and appearing in the examination by giving fake date of birth," BSEB Chairman Anad Kishore told the media here.

Kishore said that the board had cancelled the result of Ganesh Kumar and lodged a FIR against him. He was taken into custody late in the evening.

The developments followed protests by students in front of the Bihar Intermediate Education Council office here against alleged discrepancies in the results.

The BSEB Chairman said: "Preliminary investigations reveal that Ganesh Kumar had not mentioned his real age in the examination form... He has cheated the board. His real age is 42 but he has mentioned 24 years in the examination form. He is also the father of two children."

Kishore said that Kumar first appeared in the Class X examination and then in the Class XII examination to reduce his real age. "The board has cancelled his Class X as well as Class XII results."

According to him, the board has sought an explanation from the school in Samastipur district, from where Kumar had filled his examination form.

"If the management of the school fails to explain satisfactorily, action will be taken against the school as per the law. The board will also suspend the recognition of the school."

Soon after the BSEB announced Class XII results earlier this week and Kumar topped in the Arts stream, local media raised questions over his capabilities.

Ganesh Kumar had opted for Music as one of his subjects, but stumbled over queries posed by the media on music, in which he scored 65 out of 70 marks in practical and 18 out of 30 marks in theory.

Kumar was reportedly not comfortable explaining what is "sur", "taal" and "matra", considered the basics of music, and appeared confused.

Hundreds of Class XII students in Bihar, who had failed to clear the examination, continued their protests here for the third consecutive day on Friday, demanding re-checking of their answer sheets, police said.

This year, more than eight lakh of over 12 lakh students, who appeared for the Class XII examination conducted by the BSEB, had failed. The results were announced on Tuesday.

The pass percentage of students of Science, Arts and Commerce streams was 35.24 per cent, as only 4,47,115 students could pass out of a total 12,40,168 students, who sat for the examinations.

Last year, the total pass percentage was 62.19 per cent. In 2015, it stood at 87.45 per cent, 88.04 per cent in 2013 and 90.74 per cent in 2012.

Last year, the BSEB had cancelled the result of toppers of Class 12 Arts and Science streams following surfacing of the topper scam.