PATNA: Although the law of the land does not bar anyone from writing a job examination being conducted by a commission helmed by a close relative, Bihar Staff Selection Commission's chairman Sudhir Kumar, a 1987-batch IAS official, apparently did not believe in the saying that "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion".According to police, the chairman's five relatives were among the 18.5 lakh job aspirants who had applied for the 13,120 posts of clerks in different Bihar government departments.The five "VIP" job aspirants included the bureaucrat's brother's wife Manju Devi and sister's sons Ashish Kumar and Arun Kumar. Manju's sister's son Ranjan Kumar and another kin Hariom Kumar had also applied for the job, according to Patna ASP (operations) Rakesh Dubey.Manju is the wife of Awadhesh Kumar , who teaches Geography at Patna Women's College. Awadhesh, Manju and Ashish have been arrested while police are on the lookout for Arun, Ranjan and Hariom.ASP Dubey said Ashish wrote the BSSC examination on January 29 while Manju was to appear at the fourth phase of examination on February 19. Ashish is learned to have told interrogators that he wrote correct answers of 135 of the 150 questions and deliberately gave wrong answers to 15 questions.Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said Ashish and Ranjan got two sets of questions and answer keys on January 23 in Hazaribagh , where the IAS official's in-laws reside. The duo shared it with one Rameshwar Kumar, who runs Random coaching classes in Patna."A deal was struck that Rameshwar would share 50% of the money earned by selling the questions with the two cousins," Maharaaj said, adding the questions went in wild circulation after Rameshwar distributed them among several candidates in lieu of Rs six lakh each.The SSP said the question leak scam is linked to the last year's topper scam in which undeserving candidates were helped to top the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB)'s Class XII exam after taking money from them.The then BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, who has since been jailed, was one of the masterminds of the topper scam. His wife and former JD(U) MLA Usha Sinha and Vishun Roy College-Hajipur's director Bachcha Rai were also arrested for their alleged involvement in the topper scam.

Stay updated with all the Latest Patna headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.