Toppers’ scandal kingpin Bachha Rai in police net

Bachha Rai arrived at the Bhagwanpur police station to give himself up from where the police arrested him, Hajipur police sources said. “We have arrested Bachha Rai,” Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on merit scandal in Bihar’s Class 12 examination, told PTI. 

Maharaj said the police had been on hot pursuit of the accused and arrested him on Saturday. Bachha Rai is the Secretary-cum-Principal of Bishun Rai College in Vaishali district from where Arts and Science toppers Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shrestha belonged to. 

“We will interrogate him intensively,” Maharaj said Bachha Rai, a known supporter of RJD, had been allegedly eluding from police in the case. 

The probe has indicated that Bachha Rai was a key player in the case with the help of Bihar School Examination Board, police said.

Besides Arts and Science toppers, the third ranker in the Science stream Rahul Kumar, whose result has been cancelled by the board along with that of the first topper Saurabh Shrestha after a re-test also hailed from the Bishun Rai College.

Bachha Rai’s daughter Shalini Rai is one of the named accused in the FIR lodged in the case with Kotwali police station in Patna.  According to investigation, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) had allegedly hatched the conspiracy to make Shalini Rai a topper in the Science stream later on through verification of marks. But, the snowballing controversy derailed the plan and put her and father Bachha Rai in trouble, police said.