Bihar toppers scam: Ruby Rai's father arrested

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Bihar Police probing the topper's scam on Saturday arrested the father of Ruby Rai, an accused, police said.

The SIT with the help of local police in Vaishali district arrested Avadesh Rai, who has been absconding for over seven months after his involvement in the topper's scam surfaced last year.

"A team of SIT went to Ruby's house to attach the property of Avadesh Rai to put pressure on him to surrender, but much to its surprise, her father was found inside and arrested," a police official said.

Ruby Rai had topped this year's Class XII examination conducted by the Bihar State Education Board in humanities stream.

She got into trouble after a sting by a TV channel showed her giving ludicrous answers to elementary questions related to her subjects.

Class XII science stream topper Saurabh Shreshtha was also caught on camera giving wrong answers to basic science questions.

The sting suggested the "toppers" might have used cheating or fraud to achieve their ranks.

Both Ruby and Saurabh belonged to V.R. College in Vaishali district.

According to police, the SIT last year arrested Ruby but later a special juvenile court here granted bail to her.

A chargesheet was filed against former Chairman of BSEB Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, his wife and former JDU legislator Usha Sinha, the alleged kingpin of the scam, Bachcha Rai, and former director and principal of V.R. College and former board secretary Harharnath Jha.

Singh and Jha are currently in jail.

--IANS

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