Bihar 'topper' Ruby Rai gets bail

The court had denied bail to her twice last month, reports M I Khan/Rediff.com from Patna.

A special juvenile court in Patna on Monday granted bail to Ruby Rai, an accused in Bihar toppers scam.

Last month, the court had denied bail to her twice.

"After hearing her petition, the court has granted a bail to Ruby Rai," her lawyer said.

According to the lawyer, the court observed that Rai has already spent over a month in the judicial custody, first in Beur jail in Patna and then at a remand home after another court ordered for it as she is a minor.

Rai, who emerged as the ‘topper’ of Bihar Class 12 examinations in the Arts this year, was arrested in June by the Special Investigation Team after the scam surfaced.

Rai scored 444 out of 500 marks but her result was cancelled after she failed a re-test conducted by the Board of Secondary Education.

While talking to a reporter after she ‘topped’ the exams, Rai had described political science, which she pronounced as ‘prodigal science’, as a subject that deals with cooking. The video of this conversation went viral on social media and triggered an outrage after which the exam fraud was unearthed.

After being arrested, Rai told the police that it was one 'Bachcha chacha (uncle)' and her father who ‘helped’ her top the exam.

She was referring to Bachcha Rai, the alleged kingpin of the scam and former director and principal of V R College in Bihar’s Vaishali district, who was arrested earlier this month and is currently lodged in a jail in Patna.

The SIT probing the scam had arrested Rai as a first information report was lodged against her and three other ‘toppers’.