Saurabh Shrestha, a science topper, who is in the dock after a media expose, has threatened to commit suicide if he is subjected to extensive cross-examination.
Saurabh's threat was made during the authentication process by the expert panel on Friday, prompting them to immediately stop the cross-examination. After a brief break, the panel asked Saurabh a few more questions and let him go, said reports.
Saurabh claimed that he was under massive stress as his academic proficiency is being questioned since television channels aired his video. And he was not in a position to answer panel's questions, reports said.
A 15-member expert panel was set up by the government to evaluate about 14 toppers of Bihar's Intermediate Board exam following the television channels broadcast a video showing a few students were unable to answer basic questions of the subjects they aced.
READ: Political Science teaches 'cooking', says a Bihar topper; govt orders re-exam
In addition to expert examination, the government had also ordered these students to take the retest to find out whether or not they deserved to be toppers.
The panel's questions to the students were both subjective and objective. On Saturday, the panel cancelled results of two toppers, including Saurabh even as it gave a clean chit to 11 other students.
"The BSEB has decided to cancel result of science topper Saurabh and another rank holder in the same stream Rahul Kumar as their performance in Friday's re-test was found not up to mark," BSEB Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said.
"Rest 11 toppers who had appeared for written test as well as interview before an expert team have been found to be excellent and given clean chit," the Chairman said.
Another student, Ruby Rai, a topper in Arts stream, skipped the re-test citing health reasons. She was later granted a week's time to appear before the expert panel for the interview.
Ruby courted the controversy after she pronounced Political Science as 'Prodigal Science', a subject, according to her, which deals with cooking.
(With inputs from PTI)
