Ruby Rai, Bihar Schoolgirl Charged With Cheating, Still Cannot Go Home

Patna: It has been three weeks since school girl Ruby Rai was last at home. The 17-year-old was arrested after she was declared the topper in Political Science and said in television interviews that the subject involved cooking.

Ms Rai, who is at a government-run home for under-age offenders, was last evening told by a juvenile court that she cannot be freed.  

Ms Rai and three other toppers from her junior college in Bihar were clearly bereft of even basic knowledge of the subjects they had aced. Ms Rai was put through a re-examination and failed to correctly answer a single question.

Controversially, she was among a group of 20 people that have been arrested for a cheating conspiracy which was masterminded by Bacha  Rai, the principal of her college in north  Bihar, just 45 kms from the state capital of Patna.

Among those who have criticized the police for penalizing a school girl are junior education minister Upendra Kushwaha who is also from Bihar. Ms Rai has said plaintively that she never aspired to be a top performer. "I wanted a second-division," she said to reporters to point out all she hoped for was a passing grade.  Her father, Avadesh Rai, who allegedly paid for her marks, has not been arrested.