Patna: Taken to task by the Patna High Court over large-scale copying in ongoing matriculation examination and widespread criticism, the Bihar government today swung into action and cancelled examination at four centres and took seven policemen into custody for aiding in cheating.
A division bench of Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy and Justice Vikash Jain took the state government to task over report of mass scale copying in the matriculation examination.
The court converted report published in an english daily into PIL and directed state police chief to stop copying immediately. The court issued summons to Education Department to appear before it on next Friday to respond on the subject.
The court instruction came after senior lawyer and office bearer of Aam Admi Party (AAP) in the state Basant Kumar Chaudhary drew its attention by showing a newspaper report.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wasted no time and called a high level review meeting with Education minister PK Shahi, DGP PK Thakur, Principal Secretary Home Amir Subhani and his counterpart in Education department RK Mahajan in his Secretariat chamber and instructed them to ensure cheating-free matriculation examination, an official statement said.
The CM ordered action against policemen and magistrates deployed on examination duty if found involved in abetting cheating.
Principal Secretary (Education) R K Mahajan accompanied by Chairman of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh told reporters in the evening that examination at four centres in the state have been cancelled on the basis of report of mass-scale copying there.
He said lawful action would be initiated against teachers, policemen and magistrates deployed in those centres.
The four centres where exam has been cancelled included Vidya Niketan Mahnar and St Francis School Mahnar in Vaishali district where visuals showed people scaling three to four storey exam centres to pass on chits to their wards.
Mahajan said report has been sought within 24 hour from other centres across the state where media have reported cheating for action.
A report from Saharsa district said that eight home guard jawans were caught red handed aiding examinees in cheating at four centres in the district.
Sub Divisional Officer (SDO), Sadar, Saharsa Rajesh Kumar Singh said that seven home guards have been taken into custody while one managed to ran away by freeing his hand.
Scores of chits and money were recovered from these home guards on duty at four centres in Saharsa district, he said.
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