SC scraps Bihar topper scam mastermind Bachcha Rai's bail
The Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled the conditional bail granted by the Patna High Court to Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, the alleged mastermind behind the Bihar topper scam. Rai is in prison along with former Bihar Board Chairman and his wife. Notably, he is the Principal of the college where Ruby Rai, the class XII Arts topper, was enrolled.
The Supreme Court today cancelled the conditional bail granted by the Patna High Court in February this year to Amit Kumar alias Bachcha Rai, the alleged kingpin of the Bihar topper scam.The Nitish Kumar government had moved the Supreme Court asking for the removal of the bail, which was granted in case Rai is not convicted by a lower court within a month.Rai is currently lodged in a jail along with other key accused, including Lalkeshwar Singh, former Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, and his wife Usha Sinha.Bachcha Rai, the Secretary-cum Principal of Vishun Rai College in Vaishali district of Bihar, was arrested in June last year. It was from this college that Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shrestha - Class XII Arts and Science toppers respectively - were caught on camera with absolutely no knowledge of their streams.The video featuring Ruby has her describing political science as "prodigal science" and saying the subject that she topped was about cooking. Similarly, Saurabh Shreshtha was seen giving wrong answers to basic science questions.The sting by a TV news channel suggested that the "toppers" may have cheated to achieve their ranks. In 2015, Bachcha Rai's daughter Shalini was the Bihar state topper in science stream.ALSO READ: