Matriculate at 8, MA at 16, scam co-accused Usha a ‘child prodigy’

PATNA: In an election affidavit filed in 2010, the 1961-born JD(U) nominee for the Hilsa assembly constituency in Nalanda district had sworn she passed her matriculation in 1969, making her the youngest person ever to have cleared the exam — at the age of eight.

By doing so, Usha Sinha proved herself as a bigger ‘child prodigy’ that even Bihar-born physicist Tathagat Avatar Tulsi, who made media headlines when he completed high school at the age of nine.

Sinha, who went on to win the 2010 poll from Hilsa, is a co-accused in the Bihar exam scam. Also the principal of prestigious Ganga Devi Mahila College in Patna, she has been incommunicado since her medical leave ended on June 9. She is the wife of prime accused Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, former chairman of Bihar school examination board. He, too, is on the run. But this was not Sinha’s only achievement. The affidavit says she passed her intermediate examination at the age of 10 (in 1971) from UP board, graduated at 12 years of age (1973) from Gorakhpur university and completed her Masters by the time she was 15 (in 1976).

Interestingly, there is a discrepancy in Sinha’s date of birth. In her affidavit filed on October 19, 2010, she claimed to be 49 years of age.

However, her date of birth in university records is February 2, 1954, which makes her 56-year-old on that date and 62 now.

She was denied re-nomination by the JD(U) in the 2015 polls.