Patna: Former Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh confessed to having taken Rs 20 lakh from a cheating racket kingpin to help each unworthy student become a topper, police said on Wednesday.
Besides, Singh had also taken Rs 4 lakh bribe to grant affiliation to varied intermediate colleges. Both Singh and his wife Usha Sinha, ex-MLA and former professor, have been sent to three-day judicial custody. According to reports, Singh had granted affiliation to 100 colleges. The duo was nabbed in Varanasi for their alleged involvement in the cheating racket headed by jailed college principal Bachcha Roy.
The scam propelled by Roy came to light on May 30, when two students were found clueless about subjects they have excelled in.
Roy also paid on the behalf of parents, as government grants to his college in Vaishali district, where many fake toppers wrote their papers, increased, police said. The scam came to light on May 30 when two toppers, Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shreshta, looked clueless during a media interview about the subjects they had excelled in. "Police may include in the FIR the name of Rajiv Kumar Prasad Ranjan, director of Bihar Higher Secondary Education. He was a member of the board which granted affiliation to these colleges," the SSP said.
According to police, Singh allegedly involved his son-in-law Vivek Kumar, son of former Magadh University chancellor, in printing confidential matter of BSEB. Though a raid was conducted in Arun Kumar’s house, the police didn’t get hold of Kumar.
Usha Sinha is yet to be interrogated in the matter, however, she has been dropped from JD(U) and shown a pink slip by the college she was associated with earlier