Bihar Board's Intermediate arts topper Ganesh falls from grace; arrested for fraud

 Bihar Board's intermediate arts topper Ganesh Kumar

 

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor 

PATNA: Bihar Board's intermediate arts stream topper Ganesh Kumar has fallen from the grace. The police arrested Ganesh on Friday night following an FIR lodged by Bihar School Examination Board that Ganesh had forged the age certificates while enrolling for 2017 intermediate examinations.

Ganesh shook the entire education system of the state, like another topper Ruby Rai, who did in 2016, when interviewed by private TV channels he failed to justify his knowledge in music, the subject he had opted in the intermediate examinations.

During the interview Ganesh even failed to differentiate between Sur and Tal, Antra and Mukhra.

BSEB) on Friday cancelled the results and started proceedings against him and the school from which he filled up the examination form.

The BSEB chairman Anand Kishor, who was in tremendous pressure, since the TV interview exposed the topper Ganesh Kumar knowledge in music, the subject in which he got 65 marks out of 70 in practical, said that the BSEB had nullified the result of Ganesh Kumar on the charges of forgery.

“Action will be taken against him for cheating the board and he will be arrested soon”, he said.

He said action would also be taken against the Samastipur based school for hiding the facts.

Ganesh had scored 83 marks out of 100 in music.

In a hurriedly summoned Press conference, Kishor says the actual age of  Ganesh is 42 years and he has two children.

"He has cheated the board by lowering his age to 24 in connivance with the school management”, he said.

“The actual date of birth of Ganesh is November 7, 1975 and he appeared in the matric examination from a Giridih school in 1990,” he said.

Kishor said Ganesh had appeared the intermediate examination in 1992 from Jhumri Telaiya school in 1992 but he could not get it through.

“Ganesh forged his age certificate and made a new one with date of birth June 2, 1993 and got himself registered in the Samastipur school in 2015 for intermediate examination of 2017”, he said.

The BSEB has given a notice to Ganesh Kumar seeking his reply within three days.

“An FIR has already been lodged against Ganesh for forgery and against the school”, he said.

“The BSEB swung into action when the matter came to our notice. The affiliation of the school can be cancelled it they found guilty after the probe”, he said.

“The second topper, now, will be topper of the inter arts stream”, Kishor said.

Neha Kumari of Madhubani with 81.2 per cenet marks replaced Ganesh for top spot in the arts stream.

Ganesh himself stated that he had opted music as a subject for garnering maximum numbers in the intermediate examination.

Ganesh went underground after the declaration of the result on May 30 but resurfaced at his school in Samstipur district on June 1 where the TV channels took his interview.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui