More than 400 students caught cheating in Class 12 exams were expelled in Bihar yesterday and dozens of people who helped them to cheat were arrested, officials said.
“The students were expelled on charge of adopting unfair means,” a Bihar School Examination Board official said.
The highest number of students caught cheating and expelled was 40 in Sheikhpura district followed by 29 in Jehanabad and 17 in Rohtas.
The authorities have taken tough measures to ensure the exams are held in a proper way.
Around 70,000 officials, including teachers and policemen, have been deployed around exam centres, said Hariharnath Jha, an official of the Bihar School Examination Board.
The centres are also monitored by CCTV cameras.
The authorities have decided to impose a fine of up to Rs10,000 on students found using unfair means and punish guardians found helping their children to cheat.
Parents, guardians or friends found helping students to cheat would be sent to jail, they said.
Nearly 1.16mn students appeared for Class 12 exams at 1,109 centres across the state yesterday.
Students caught cheating would be expelled for three years. Earlier, the board debarred them only for a year, Jha said.
New Education Minister Ashok Choudhary had on several occasions spoken about stringent arrangements to check cheating in the board exam.
But despite the elaborate arrangements, reports of cheating came from many districts.
There were reports of students vandalising a school in Chhapra after they were not allowed to copy.
People were shown climbing a school building in Vaishali district to provide chits to examinees at a centre.
Mass cheating has been reported in Bihar for years and has become an annual affair that hogs the headlines every year in March as reports and visuals surface of guardians and friends helping the students.