'Tulsidas ji, Pranam': This one-line essay from Bihar topper Ruby Rai was enough to get her arrested

Bihar’s most infamous humanities topper, Ruby Rai shocked one and all with her answers in the re-test. An expert present at her re-test told HT: “She claimed to have studied for the examination for two years but could not remember anything.” Meanwhile, during the exam, when she was asked to write about the poet and saint Tulsidas, she wrote: “Tulsidas ji, pranam" (Salutations, Tulsidas). Her answer shocked the entire panel and everyone was left wondering how this girl had topped.”

Ruby was arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) as she emerged from a re-test of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj told PTI.

A Patna court issued a non-bailable against four toppers of the intermediate examination, including Ruby, in the exam racket. Science topper Saurbabh Shrestha, third topper Rahul Kumar and Vishun Roy college Principal Bachha Rai's daughter Shalini Rai are the other three against whom the arrest warrant was issued. Ruby's comments during a TV interview after she was declared the topper in Humanities stream this year had led to the lid being taken off from the toppers scam in the state.

She had pronounced Political Science which was one of her subjects as "Prodikal science" which according to her taught cooking.

 Meanwhile, during questioning the private assistant (PA) of former BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Singh revealed that Rs 15 lakh was charged for declaring toppers through dubious means, SSP Maharaj said. The PA, Vikash Chandra, further revealed that a sum of Rs 10 lakh was charged from a failed student to give them pass certificates, he said.

Singh, his former JD(U) MLA wife Usha Sinha, Vishun Roy college secretary-cum principal Bachha Rai and nearly a dozen others have been arrested in the degree racket case. Meanwhile, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has decided to cancel Ruby's result after she failed to give satisfactory replies in the re-test conducted by subject experts.

"The BSEB took the decision to cancel the result of the Arts topper on the basis of report of experts team on her performance in today's re-test," Anand Kishore, the new chairman of the board, told reporters. "She could not answer many of the questions which had been asked in the examination in which she (Ruby Rai) was declared the topper," he said. "During the course of the re-test her calibre was not found congruent to the top rank she had secured in +2 examination this year," Kishore, who is also Commissioner of Patna division, added. The results of the intermediate science topper Saurabh Shrestha and third topper in the stream Rahul Kumar have already been cancelled by BSEB on the basis of their poor performance in an earlier re-test.

With agency inputs