Bihar exam mess continues, police fire in air

Patna, March 21: Incidents of cheating in the Class 10 exam continued in Bihar on Saturday with police even having to fire in the air and carry out a baton charge to disperse a large number of people helping students to copy, an official said.

No one was injured in both the incidents in Vaishali and Bhojpur districts, the official said.

The development came days after photographs showing people climbing a school wall in the state to fling answer sheets to students taking tests inside the building went viral and grabbed national and international headlines.

Police on Saturday fired in the air at an examination centre in Vaishali's Hajipur area to disperse a large number of people helping students to copy, a police officer said.

The police action came a day after the Patna High Court directed the Bihar Police chief to deploy adequate security forces to ensure a check on cheating at examination centres.

In Ara, Bhojpur's district headquarters, police resorted to a baton charge to disperse people helping students to copy in the examination.

Nearly 100 people, mostly close relatives of students, were arrested in Saharsa district for helping students to copy in the examination.

Over 1.4 million students are appearing in the Class 10 board examination.

In a bizarre case, dozens of people -- said to be family members of the students -- were seen climbing the walls of an exam centre and flinging answer sheets into various rooms where their wards were writing the exam in Vaishali district.

IANS