Nearly 300 arrested in anti-cheating operations in Bihar

Patna, March 21

Nearly 300 persons were arrested so far in the anti-cheating operations across the state, even as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has admitted that reports of rampant use of unfair means in the ongoing matriculation examination has sullied the image of the state.

(See video: Mass copying: Govt cancels exams, expels students)

“Reports of cheating in examination has drawn bad name to Bihar...I have ordered to stop cheating in ongoing matriculation examination),” Nitish Kumar told reporters.

His order for ensuring cheating-free matriculation examination had its impact today with the police arresting nearly 300 persons from outside examination centres so far.

Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Gupteshwar Pandey told PTI that 150 persons, including parents and relatives, have been arrested from different exam centres in Vaishali alone.

Vaishali had gained notoriety for mass scale use of unfair means in matriculation examination.

Examination was cancelled in two centres in Mahnar in Vaishali district on Friday and in two other centres at Saharsa and Nawada.

The police even having to fire in the air and carry out a baton charge to disperse a large number of people helping students copy, an official said.

No one was hurt in the incidents, which occurred Vaishali and Bhojpur districts, the official said.

The development came days after photographs showing people scaling a school’s wall in the state to fling answer sheets to students taking tests inside the building went viral and grabbed national and international headlines.

Police on Saturday had to fire shots in the air at an examination centre in Vaishali's Hajipur area to disperse a large number of people helping students copy, a police officer said.

The police action came a day after the Patna High Court directed the Bihar Police chief to deploy adequate security forces to ensure a check on cheating at examination centres.

The rest of the arrests were made from Araria (45), Madhubani and elsewhere, the ADG said.

In Ara, Bhojpur's district headquarters, police resorted to a baton charge to disperse people helping students to copy in the examination.

Nearly 100 people, mostly close relatives of students, were arrested in Saharsa district for helping students cheat in their exams.

Additional BMP (Bihar Military Police) personnel have been deployed in Vaishali and Nawada for conduct of fair examination, Pandey, who is in touch with SPs of all the districts himself, said the officer.

Over 1.4 million students are appearing in the Class 10 board examination.

In a bizarre case, dozens — said to be family members of the students — were seen scaling the walls of an exam centre to fling answer sheets into various rooms where their wards were writing the exam in Vaishali district. — PTI/ IANS