Bihar Inter ‘topper’ held

Bihar’s Intermediate Board topper in the Humanities stream, Ganesh Kumar, was arrested late on Friday after the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) cancelled his results. Ganesh Kumar had got 82.6% in the examination. “Bihar Intermediate topper in Arts stream Ganesh Kumar’s result has been cancelled with immediate effect. A case is also being filed against him and the school authorities,” said BSEB chairman Anand Kishor. Mr. Kishor, earlier in the evening, had called Ganesh Kumar to the BSEB office. He was later arrested for fraud for giving the wrong date of birth. “He will be produced in a court tomorrow [Saturday],” said Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj. Blames media However, Mr. Kumar appeared surprised and said he was not aware why he was being arrested. “I was called for some queries here, but I don’t know why they arrested me…is it a crime to appear in an examination for a second time?...you [media] people have created an unnecessary brouhaha,” Mr. Kumar told journalists. Mr. Kumar, who got 83% marks in music, appeared clueless about basic musical notes, when questioned by the media. Neither could he answer questions relating to the Hindi paper, in which he had got 92%. Hailing from Giridih district of Jharkhand, Mr. Kumar had come to Samastipur and appeared for the examination at the Ramnandan Singh Jagdeep Narayan Higher Secondary School. Earlier in the day, the ruling JD(U) leaders had defended Mr. Kumar, claiming that he was being targeted by a section of the media because he was a Dalit.