A district court in Patna today accepted that the controversial Humanities ‘topper’ in the Bihar Intermediate Examination – Ruby Rai – who was arrested in connection with an examination cheating racket, is a minor, PTI reported.
Special Vigilance court judge Raghvendra Kumar Singh accepted that the girl is a minor on the basis of her matriculation certificate which mentioned her date of birth as November 15, 1998.
The girl, who was in Patna’s Beur model jail since June 25, will now move to a remand home.
The girl along with the Science stream topper had come into limelight after they gave ridiculous answers to questions on their subjects in a video which went viral, prompting an inquiry. She was arrested by Special Investigation Team as she emerged from a re-test of Bihar School Examination Board.
But, as per her matriculation certificate, she is 17 years, 3 months and nine days old and cannot be sent to jail.
Former member of the Juvenile Justice Board K D Mishra, who appeared in the court in favour of the girl, presented her matriculation certificate to claim that she is a minor. The lawyer of the Bihar School Examination Board also did not oppose the matriculation certificate of the girl in the court today.
Last week, ScoopWhoop wrote about how the administration showed a haste in arresting Ruby without checking if she was a minor. It is sad that the girl was kept in a Central jail for 10 days even when she should have been in a remand home for minors.