Masters at 15: Intermediate scam co-accused Usha is a ‘child prodigy’

Wife of former Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairperson Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, an accused in the intermediate toppers’ scam, has claimed to have cleared her Class 10 board examination when she was just eight years old.

Usha Sinha was also made a co-accused in the intermediate examination scandal by the police special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam “as her role has also come under the scanner following interrogation of arrested persons”. Some BSEB employees also alleged that she used to ‘manipulate’ things at the board.

In an election affidavit filed in 2010, the ‘1961 born’ Janata Dal(United) candidate for the Hilsa assembly constituency in Nalanda district said she passed her matriculation examination in 1969.

Read more: Time running out for BSEB ex-chief, wife made co-accused

If her claims are to be believed, she has left behind Bihar-born physicist Tathagat Avatar Tulsi, who made the headlines after completing high school at the age of nine.

And this isn’t Sinha’s only ‘achievement’ at a stunningly young age. According to the affidavit, she passed her intermediate examination in 1971 at the age of 10 from Uttar Pradesh board, graduated at 12 from Gorakhpur university and completed her masters when she was 15 years old in 1976.

Sinha’s affirmation that she obtained her masters degree from Awadh (sic) University in 1976 is also interesting since ‘Avadh’ University, now renamed Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, came into existence only on March 4, 1975.

In her affidavit dated October 19, 2010, Sinha mentioned her age as 49 (which made her 1961 born) which means she was just 23 years old when she earned her doctorate from Gaya headquartered Magadh university in 1984.

She won the 2010 Bihar assembly poll from Hilsa and served as an MLA for the next five years. She was, however, denied the seat by the JD(U) in the 2015 polls after her party conceded that seat to a ‘grand alliance’ partner.

Sinha, the principal of Ganga Devi Mahila College in the state capital, proceeded on eight-day medical leave on June 9 after her name cropped up in the scam. She has been incommunicado since then.

Patna Police have petitioned a designated court for an arrest warrant against Singh, who is absconding since he was made an accused in the intermediate toppers’ scam that has rocked the state.

Singh resigned from his post last Wednesday hours after the state education department served him a second show cause notice.