Bihar School Board chairman's wife graduates in a two-year course from one-year old university

PATNA: While former Bihar School Examination Board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh continues to evade arrest even one week after an FIR was lodged against him in the intermediate toppers scam case, a cursory look at the Election Commission website reveals that his wife, Usha Sinha, earned a Master's degree when only 15 years old, apart from other startling details.

A former JD(U) MLA from Hilsa in Nalanda district, Usha Sinha, in her affidavit to the EC in October 2010, had sworn she was 1961 born and hence 49 years' old, and that she had passed MA from " Awadh University" in 1976.

This itself is surprising since Avadh (and not Awadh) University -now re-christened Dr Ram Manohar Lohia University -was notified by the UP government on March 4, 1975, with its headquarters in Faizabad.

While it's questionable how anyone could do two-year postgraduation in 1976 from a university that came into existence only a year earlier in 1975, Sinha's affidavit also makes her other qualifications doubtful. It says she completed her matriculation and intermediate from the UP board in 1969 and 1971 respectively . This would imply that she turned a matriculate at eight and passed the intermediate at 10.

The affidavit further states Usha Sinha got BA and B.Ed degrees from Gorakhpur University in 1973 and 1974. Again, this would mean Sinha was 12 when she became a graduate and turned a trained school teacher at 13.

Sinha, however, aimed high and went on to complete her PhD from Bodh Gaya-based Magadh University in 1984 at age 23. She then chose to teach collegians and joined as a Hindi faculty member at Patna's College of Commerce.

At the time Usha and her husband Lalkeshwar went missing from their Bahadurpur (Patna) home, she was officiating as the principal of Patna's Ganga Devi Mahila College.

The merit scandal rocked Bihar on May 30 after a TV channel showed the state topper of BSEB's Class XII (arts) exam fumble for answers to basic questions relating to her subjects.