Only the rejection of the results of two Class XII toppers in Bihar and de-recognition of one college in the Inter results scandal is not enough, the Government has decided to file an FIR against those prima facie involved in this scam.
Education Minister Ashok Chaudhary on Monday told The Pioneer that since the case has been treated as criminal offence, FIR with police will be registered against “all the individuals and college” whose involvement in this scandal is strongly suspected. He did not rule out the possibility of the involvement of the officials of Bihar School Examination Board which is entrusted to conduct the intermediate and matriculation examinations.
Chaudhary ruled out the earlier decision of his department for constitution of an inquiry committee. “After the inquiry we had to take decision of filing FIRs so instead of any probe committee and waiting for its report we are going with the decision of filing FIRs,” he added.
The education department’s decision to hold inquiry was clouded in controversy as the BSEB chairman lalkeshwar Prasad Singh had also announced constitution of a judicial panel to probe the same issue.
The Minister’s decision came after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s strong stand who said that it was a criminal offence and be treated accordingly. “The education department is taking action and its action will bear far reaching consequences. After the reports of the mass copying in matriculation exam we took drastic measures which resulted into fair exam and result
BSEB chairman, who constituted a parallel committee in a huff with retired High Court judge Ghanshyam Prasad, is also under the scanner and action might be taken against him too. The toppers whose merit is suspected beyond doubt apart from Vishnu Rai College of Vaishali district, which produced three toppers this year; two of them failed the test and one did not appear, and those responsible for holding exam, evaluation and exam centres’ authorities could be accused in the criminal cases.
The CM said nobody involved in this scandal will allow to escape. “The responsibility will be fixed whether they are education department or BSEB officials or the outsiders. Some minor irregularities can be pardoned but not of this extent,” said Nitish.
As per the results of the retest of the 13 toppers of Class XII exam held on Friday, the science topper Saurabh Shrestha who secured 426 of 500 marks ended up with just 15 marks out of 125 with zero in English, 2 in Chemistry and 3 in Math. The third topper Rahul Kumar proved equally meritorious. Kumar had obtained 423 marks out of 500 in the exam but in the test he could secure only 9 of 125. He got 2 each in Math and Physics and zero in English.