Bihar must stop treating fake topper as hardened criminal

The controversial Bihar Intermediate Arts topper Ruby Rai's case warrants special attention by chief minister Nitish Kumar.

She is not just a victim of the state's rotten education system but has also been failed by the police and judiciary. Besides being a girl student, Ruby is also a minor. Unfortunately, the state is treating her like a hardened criminal - the police arrested her and the court sent her to judicial custody for 14 days in Beur jail.

The CM, who is known for launching several path-breaking initiatives for the welfare of girl students such as free bicyles to them, must intervene urgently. In case he fails to do so, all his claims of empowering women will prove hollow.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby was arrested by a special investigative team (SIT) on June 25 after she failed to clear a re-test. On being asked to write an essay on poet and saint Tulsidas, she wrote a one line answer which read "Tulsidas ji, Pranaam". The SIT committed a grave blunder by arresting a minor and producing her in court instead of sending her to a juvenile home.

The police seem to have goofed up while registering an FIR against her. All FIRs mention the details of an accused - her/his name, father/spouse's name, age and address. But Ruby's age has become the subject of another controversy. An NGO held a press conference at Patna on June 27 claiming that she was born in October 1998 and was hence a minor.

After it failed to apply their mind while registering an FIR, the police are now shifting the onus on the court. "It is the court that takes a call on one being a minor or not. As the girl has not claimed at any stage that she is a minor, the court treated her as a major and sent her to judicial custody," Patna SSP Manu Maharaj said.

Does the police expect a girl, who calls Political Science "Prodigal" Science and who does not even know who Tulsidas was, to know whether she is a minor or an adult? Ruby has already passed matriculation. Was it not the duty of the police to procure her matriculation certificate which mentions her date of birth?

But the police were acting in a hurry. They were clearly in a haste to proclaim Ruby guilty to deflect attention of the national media from the controversy. The police themselves should have raised this point in the court but apparently they did not. The court too seems to have overlooked this crucial aspect of the case.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which was enforced on January 15, 2016, allows children aged 16 to 18 years to be tried as adults only in cases of heinous offences like rape and murder. But Ruby is accused of committing "forgery and cheating" under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120(B) of the IPC. These are not heinous crimes by any standard.

Hence, her trial as an adult violates Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (requiring that laws and procedures are fair and reasonable) of the Constitution. It also breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which requires all signatory countries to treat every child under the age of 18 years as equal.

Suppose Ruby was an adult. The police still should not have arrested her. They should have gone whole hog after the real culprits. They have already arrested the key persons behind the scam - such as Bihar School Examination Board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad, his wife Usha Sinha (she is a former Janata Dal United legislator), Vishun Roy College principal Bachha Rai, Bihar board secretary Hariharnath Jha and nearly a dozen others in the racket. Since the scam has been broken, new BSEB chairman Anand Kishore has transferred over 300 employees of the BSEB and suspended 27 for dereliction of duty.

Also read: Spare the 'fake' Bihar topper; hasn't she been punished enough?

The police should also arrest those who paid bribe to these officials. They would be justified in laying their hands on the parents or guardians of Ruby and other such toppers like Saurabh Shresth, Rahul Kumar and Shalini Rai against whom arrest warrants have been issued.

The biggest punishment for these "toppers" is their failure to clear the Intermediate exam. They have suffered enough humiliation. The guardians of these impressionable minds should be punished so that it acts as a deterrent for the others in the future.

Also, the BSEB held re-tests only for 14 "toppers". Why only for 14? What is the guarantee that the others did not resort to unfair means? Instead of this short-cut method, the Board should have conducted a re-test of the entire batch appearing for Intermediate exams.

But the BSEB will not hold a re-test for all as it will expose the deep malaise in the education system. Even after an image showing people climbing up on windows of multi-storeyed exam centres to help the candidates going viral, the government has failed to check copying and cheating.

But arresting the weakest link in the chain shows the state government's casual approach. It is just an eyewash to divert attention from much bigger issues of law and order. Ruby's arrest has only exposed the Nitish government's nervous knee-jerk reaction to salvage its sagging image rather than getting to the bottom of the malaise that afflicts the education system in the state.

Release Ruby right away. Stop treating her like a hardened criminal.