Disgraced former Bihar board topper Ruby Rai told the police on Sunday that she never expected to top the Class 12 examination and just wanted to simply pass the test.
Rai was arrested on Saturday and sent to 14-days judicial custody after she wrote just one sentence in her re-test ordered by state authorities.
“Hum dehaat ki ladki hain, humko nahi pata hum kaise top kar gaye (I am a village girl. I don’t know how I topped the examination),” Rai, a student of VR College in Vaishali district, was quoted by police as saying during the interrogation.
Sources said Rai told the police that her college principal Bachcha Roy, the alleged scam kingpin, was distantly related to her. However, she said she never had any direct contact with him. She did not rule out the possibility that her father interacted with Roy, said a source.
Read | Tulsidas ji, pranam: Bihar board ‘topper’ in essay before arrest
Rai -- the humanities topper in the exam -- grabbed national headlines last month by claiming she was taught cooking in her political science classes. She was among several toppers whose results were scrapped and re-test ordered. But she flunked the re-test, managing only a single line – “Tulsidas ji, pranam” – when asked to write an essay on the poet in her re-test. She claimed she had forgotten what she studied.
{{/usCountry}}Rai -- the humanities topper in the exam -- grabbed national headlines last month by claiming she was taught cooking in her political science classes. She was among several toppers whose results were scrapped and re-test ordered. But she flunked the re-test, managing only a single line – “Tulsidas ji, pranam” – when asked to write an essay on the poet in her re-test. She claimed she had forgotten what she studied.
{{/usCountry}}Ruby was arrested on Saturday on the premises of the Bihar School Examination Board Education after she failed the re-test. She was kept at the women’s police station before being produced in court.
The lid was blown off the merit list scam last month after television interviews of several toppers revealed they had little knowledge of the subjects they had supposedly aced. Authorities also cancelled the affiliation of VR College where Rai studied.
Read | Bihar ‘topper’ arrest wrong, blame parents and officials: Union minister
Read | Why Ruby Rai’s arrest will not stop the rot in India’s education system