'Can't read & write': Man gets 99% in 10th, peon job in Karnataka

KOPPAL: Prabhu Laxmikanth Lokare, 23, from Sajji Oni, who previously worked as a cleaner at Koppal court, recently secured a job as a peon in the court, after reportedly scoring 99.5% in Class 10 exams. But his achievement has raised eyebrows prompting the JMFC judge in Koppal to direct police to probe into Prabhu's educational background as he had seen and heard about the latter's struggles with reading and writing. An FIR was filed on April 26.

Prabhu, hailing from Sindhanur taluk of Raichur district, had studied only up to Class 7 and worked as a cleaner in the Koppal court. But his name appeared on the final merit selection list released on April 22, 2024, for a peon's position, following which he was posted at the district and sessions court in Yadgir.

Court peon took SSLC exam directly after class 7 and scored 623 out of 625
This surprised the judge, who had seen Prabhu working as a cleaner for several years and had got to know through sources that he had no formal schooling beyond class 7 and couldn't write or read even Kannada.

The judge filed a private complaint with police to investigate Prabhu's academic record as he suspected he might have cheated to score 99.5% marks.

The FIR, filed by inspector Jayaprakash, said Prabhu after completing class 7 took SSLC exam directly without being admitted to any school and got 623 out of 625 marks. However, he cannot read and write in Kannada, English, or Hindi raising serious doubts on the legitimacy of his schooling.

The judge observed that fraudulent academic achievements are unfair to meritorious students and called for a thorough investigation if there are others like Prabhu who have secured govt jobs through unfair practices. He also asked cops to compare Prabhu's handwriting with his SSLC answersheets.

Prabhu said that he took the class 10 exams in 2017-18 as a private candidate at an institution at Banahatti in Bagalkot district and it was conducted by Delhi Education Board.