Bihar toppers scam: Another former BSEB secretary arrested

Patna: Days after the arrest of former Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) secretary Harihar Nath Jha over his alleged involvement in the Intermediate toppers scam, another former secretary Nivas Chandra was on Monday arrested in connection with this case. This takes the total number of arrests in the case so far to over 20. According to reports, ever since former BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and his wife Usha Sinha were arrested from Varanasi in this case, the couple have been alleging that it was Harihar Nath Jha who was the mastermind in the entire scam and that they had no role in it. The issue came to limelight last month after a video of Ruby Rai, the controversial Humanities 'topper' in the Bihar Intermediate Examination, went viral in which she described political science as "prodigal science" and stated that political science, a subject she virtually aced, teaches cooking. Soon, a seven-member expert committee was constituted and Rai was asked to appear before the committee. The panel cancelled her result after the review. Rai was then sent to judicial custody till July 8 after her arrest on June 25 in connection with this case. However, she was on Monday shifted from Beur jail to remand home on grounds that she was a minor. Rai had secured 444 marks out of 500 in the arts stream. However, on camera she did not even appear to know the number of subjects in her course. The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) had earlier on June 4 cancelled the results of two toppers, including Sourabh Shrestha, of the Intermediate (Science) examinations after they failed to prove their merits in a re-test.