40K answersheets found from two scrap dealers

Despite chief minister Nitish Kumar’s repeated assurance to improve the education system in the state, deep- rooted corruption in board examination and carelessness of officials continues to expose education department.

The latest to create flutter was the recovery of over 40,000 answer sheets from two scrap dealers in Gopalganj district. According to the police, both the scrap dealers had purchased the answer sheets from the caretaker of the school where the answer sheets were kept after evaluation.

According to education department officials over 40,000 evaluated answer sheets kept in 214 gurney bags had disappeared from a room of SS Girl’s secondary High School in Gopalganj district.

“The officials wanted to verify the answer sheets of students who had scored high marks in the class ten board examinations. But all the bags were found missing. The incident had delayed the class ten board results. The matter is still being investigated”, a Bihar board official said. Both the scrap dealers were later produced before the court. The SIT after interrogating both the scrap dealers produced them before the court from where they were sent to jail. Sources claim that the SIT is also trying to find out the motive behind school peon selling the answer sheets as scrap.

The SIT probing the case had earlier detained school’s Principal Pramod Kumar Srivastava for questioning. He was later arrested after police suspected his role in the case.

The Bihar School Examination Board which was slated to declare the class ten results this week had postponed it for June 26 due to the incident. Around 1.76 candidates had appeared for the class 10th board examinations held in February.