Securitymen at the ransacked CBSE regional office in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, June 14: The furore over the CBSE’s alleged average marking in the Class XII exam took an ugly turn today when a section of the aggrieved students ransacked the board’s Patna regional office and got engaged in a fisticuff with its officials.

Police had to resort to mild lathicharge to bring the situation under control. As many as 28 students were detained. Later they were set free, Patna City superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande said.

The statement that only the answer sheets of the students who went on hunger strike would be “verified” angered the rest of the students crying foul over the alleged average marking. A large number of them crowded the CBSE’s regional office on Frazer Road today demanding justice. Some of them were accompanied by their parents.

The anger and frustration of the students boiled over ultimately as they started to ransack the office premises, forcing the police to intervene. They allegedly beat up the students with some CBSE officials and the board office guards.

The CBSE officials alleged that a section of the media had spread wrong information stating that the board would re-check and re-evaluate the answer sheets of the students who went on hunger strike. It ultimately led to the violence.

“We have lodged an FIR against a news channel for misguiding people. Verification never means re-checking or re-evaluation of answer sheets. It refers to re-totalling of marks and checking if any question was unchecked,” L.L. Meena, the assistant secretary of the CBSE regional office, said.

The decision of the CBSE to verify only the papers of the students who sat on a hunger strike did not go down well with the other students and their guardians.

“Do we need to sit on a hunger strike to get our answer sheets re-evaluated? Why should we suffer?” they asked.