Bihar Topper Ganesh Kumar, Now Arrested For Fraud, Is 42, Has Two Kids, Says Board

Patna: Ganesh Kumar, this year's Class 12 board exam topper in Bihar who followed suit with last year's topper Ruby Rai in flubbing a TV interview by failing to answer basic questions about his subjects, has been arrested. His result, like his predecessor, has been cancelled. The Bihar School Examination Board has also lodged a case against him for concealing his age. Mr Kumar, who had claimed to be 24, is actually 42 and the father of two children, Board chairman Anand Kishor said.

Last year, Ruby Rai drew national infamy after she said "political science" is about cooking. This time, Mr Kumar, the topper in humanities, stumbled over queries posed by the media on music, in which he scored 65 out of 70 in practicals.

Mr 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.

He seemed to have a difficult time explaining what is 'sur', 'taal' and 'matra', considered the basics of music. Asked what did he do in music practicals, he unrhythmically sang a few lines of a Bollywood number.
 Mr Kumar appeared for the board exams at Ramnandan Singh Jagdip Narayan High school in Samastipur's Chhakhabib village and scored 82.6 per cent.

He got 92 per cent in Hindi, 82 per cent in music and 42 per cent in social science.

A report from Samastipur said Mr Kumar's school cancelled a function to felicitate him following the controversy.

Mr Kumar, who hails from Giridih in Jharkhand, said he had come to the village in search of livelihood some years ago and had taken admission in the school after some people asked him to do so.

The school's founding secretary, Jawahar Prasad Singh, claimed that Kumar had himself decided to take admission in the school.

State Education Minister Ashok Choudhary, after a meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said, "The board chairman has himself said the evaluation process was carried out in a proper manner ... the media is always looking to rake up something negative."

Mr Choudhary asked if the "media person who posed queries to the topper is himself a great musician?"

Answer sheets were evaluated by competent teachers and is it not justified to question the low pass percentage this year, he added.