Bihar Police files case against prominent educator and YouTuber for ‘misleading’ agitating Bihar civil services aspirants

Patna police has registered a case against the X handle — Khan Global Studies associated with renowned educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan alias Khan sir accusing it of spreading fake news and misleading the agitating students.

The police action came on Dec 7 amid protests by civil services aspirants against "normalization" in the Bihar Public Service Commission's (BPSC) preliminary test to be conducted on Dec 13.

Police clarified that Khan was neither detained nor arrested.

The controversy erupted after the handle shared a post demanding Khan’s release despite him never being arrested, according to police. The police clarified that the post was baseless, provocative, and aimed at confusing students.

Normalization is a process aimed at addressing possible variations in the difficulty of different question papers across different shifts of an examination.

Commenting on the post, Dr Anu Kumari Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Sachiwalaya called it "baseless, misleading and provocative".

Kumari stated that the post falsely claimed that Khan had been detained and demanded his release.

"This handle has made a misleading post. Khan Sir was not arrested by us," she was quoted as saying.

The police statement came a day after police used lathicharge to disperse hundreds of protestors near the BPSC office in Patna, who were demanding the withdrawal of "changes" to the rules for the 70th BPSC preliminary examination.

The protesting students are demanding that exams be held in 'One Shift and One Paper' to avoid the normalization process.

The BPSC, however, denied any changes to the examination process. The police action on protesting candidates further escalated tensions leading to public outrage and demands for accountability.

Educators Khan and and Motiur Rahman Khan, popularly known as Guru Rahman, joined the protests criticizing the perceived lack of communication from BPSC and advocating for candidates' rights.

However, tensions mounted on Dec 6 as Khan was seen going to a police station. SDPO Kumari was quoted as saying that the educator came to the Gardanibagh police station on his own accord, “He was later dropped to his vehicle near Atal Path in a police vehicle on his request.” she added.

Earlier while joining the protestors, Khan said that with just a week left for exams, it was unfortunate that there was a need to protest for their demands on the "land of Chanakya".

"We don't have personal qualms with anyone. The process can be good, but the person implementing it should also be good. Can they assure us that? We will not move from here until normalization is assured to be removed," he told reporters.

"We request the police administration to understand that your children are also studying here. We also teach them. We believe in the Constitution. That's why we are not protesting on the streets. We reached the Dharna-sthal (protesting site) to protest constitutionally. We will make sure that the normalization (process) is canceled. We don't have any expectations from BPSC. We have hopes from the government. We will stand with those who will listen to our demands," he added.

He also demanded an extension of the exam date and the acceptance of forms of students rejected due to discrepancies in the server.

Amid the uproar, the BPSC issued a detailed clarification on Dec 6 stating that the 'normalization' process is neither mentioned in any clause of the advertisement for the 70th Combined Preliminary Examination nor proposed afterward.

It affirmed that the exam will be conducted in a single shift on Dec 13 from 12-2 pm, and thus normalization is irrelevant.