BPSC exam row: Patna Police dismisses rumours about Khan Sir's arrest

The protesting students are demanding that exams be held in 'One Shift and One Paper' to avoid the normalisation process

Bihar Police on Saturday dismissed social media rumours about the arrest of Patna-based tutor and YouTuber Khan Sir, stating he had come to a police station on his own accord to express solidarity with protesters detained over an illegal demonstration near the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) office.

Anu Kumari, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Sachiwalay-1, warned of initiating action against the social media handle 'Khan Global Studies' for spreading misinformation about his arrest.

"Police have initiated the process of taking legal action against social media handle 'Khan Global Studies' for spreading misinformation about the arrest of Khan Sir. It's baseless... he has not been arrested," she said.

"People associated with the social media handle are demanding the release of Khan Sir through various posts since this morning," she said.

Patna Police clarified that Khan Sir had come to Gardani Bagh police station after meeting protesters in the locality where they were staging a dharna on Friday evening.

"He was repeatedly asked to leave the police station. On this, he requested personnel of the Gardani Bagh police station to drop him in a police vehicle near his car parked near Atal Path. As requested, he was taken in the police vehicle to the spot where his car was parked. He was neither detained nor arrested," she said.

Khan Sir openly supported the agitating BPSC aspirants following the lathi-charge in Patna on Friday. He reached the dharna site in the Gardani Bagh locality in Patna to express their solidarity with the agitators.

Police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the large group of protesting aspirants near the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) office in Patna, who were demanding withdrawal of "changes" to the rules for the 70th BPSC Preliminary Examination scheduled for December 13.

Police registered a case against agitating students who attempted to block the movement of traffic on Bailey Road near the BPSC office and arrested student leader Dilip Kumar for attempting to organise a protest in the restricted area.

Eyewitnesses claimed that two-three aspirants were injured in the lathi-charge, a charge denied by the officials.

"No protester sustained any injury. Mild force was used to disperse those who tried to break the police barricade," a police officer said.

The protesters were demanding that the BPSC preliminary examination be conducted in the 'one shift, one paper' format, rather than using the 'normalisation of marks' process.

Normalisation equalises scores from examinations held in multiple shifts using a statistical formula.

BPSC said that no changes will be made in the examination process and the old system will be used.

Khan Sir on Friday demanded that a statement be issued by none other than the BPSC chairman ruling out the use of the 'normalisation process' for the examination, and extend the examination date as many aspirants faced technical issues while applying.

The 70th BPSC Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination, scheduled for December 13, will recruit candidates for Group A and B posts. Around five lakh candidates are expected to appear for the exam, which will be conducted across 925 centres.

The BPSC on Saturday clarified that no 'normalisation process' would be followed in the BPSC exam and it will be held on December 13 across the state.