Bihar topper scam: SIT arrests mastermind Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh

Singh, who is the former Bihar School Examination Board chairman, had gone underground after resigning from the board

Former Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and his wife Usha Sinha were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday, in connection with the intermediate toppers' scam case in the state.

The warrant was issued by a Patna civil court against Singh, who is a key accused in the case and had gone underground after resigning from the board and was untraceable since then.

The SIT probing on Sunday recovered a pistol and five live rounds during search operation from the office of Baccha Rai, principal of VR College.

Earlier, gold worth Rs. 20 lakh was recovered from the Vaishali residence of Baccha Rai. He was sent to two day SIT remand over Bihar topper scam on Friday.

Following the furore over the Bihar Board examination toppers being unable to answer basic questions related to their stream eventually leading to a re-examination, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earlier said the guilty won't be spared, adding the investigation into this matter will be done with a criminal angle.

The BSEB 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.

The board had on June 3 asked Sourabh and his college mate Rahul Kumar, who were among the 13 toppers from the arts and science streams in the Class XII examinations, to reappear in a re-test following a controversy over their merits.

Saurabh Shrestha from the science stream, who had secured 485 out of 500, was caught on camera failing to answer basic questions.

Ruby Rai, the arts topper, from the same college failed to take the re-test earlier on Friday citing health reasons.

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.