Patna police arrests three in topper muddle

Samastipur (Bihar): The Patna police on Sunday arrested three persons, including the headmaster of Sanjay Gandhi High School in Samastipur district, in connection with forgery by intermediate arts topper Ganesh Kumar.

Ganesh Kumar, who was stripped of his intermediate arts topper title for submitting forged documents to appear in class XII examination, had passed matriculation from Sanjay Gandhi High School in 2015.

Rosra Sub-Division (in Samastipur district) Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajit Kumar said that a police team from Patna today arrested Dev Kumari, the headmaster of Sanjay Gandhi High School, from her Sharda Nagar residence in Rosra town.

The police also arrested Dev Kumari's husband Ram Kumar Choudhary, also the former secretary of the school as well as its clerk Gautam Kumar from Lakshminiya village in Samastipur district, the DySP said.

The special police team took the three persons to Patna for further interrogation, he said.

Ganesh Kumar, who was declared intermediate arts topper of 2017 10+2 exam, was arrested on June 2 on the charge of fudging his date of birth. He was remanded in for 14 days' judicial custody.

The police yesterday arrested Sanjay Kumar from Musallahpur locality of Patna in the topper's scam.

Sanjay Kumar was the man behind getting Ganesh Kumar admitted to Ram Nandan Singh Jagdeep Narayan Inter College, Chakhabib village of Samastipur district, from where the inter arts topper appeared at the intermediate examination of 2017.

Ganesh also took Sanjay Kumar's help in getting admission to Sanjay Gandhi High School, Samastipur to appear at matriculation examination in 2015.

Ganesh Kumar, who topped Class XII boards in humanities stream, stumbled over queries posed by the media on music in which he scored 65 out of 70 in practicals.

He even struggled to explain the basics of music, one of his subjects.

Kumar in an interview to a TV news channel said singer Lata Mangeshkar is known as 'Maithili Kokila', a title bestowed on folk singer Sharda Sinha, who is from Samastipur, where his school is situated.