The Odisha Police on Sunday arrested Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Vice-President of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), for his alleged involvement in leaking the question paper for the special Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET)-2025.
The special OTET exam, initially scheduled for July 20, was postponed after a handwritten question paper with answers went viral on social media a day before the test.
During the investigation, police uncovered clear negligence and suspicious coordination between Mohanty and the prime accused, Jitan Moharana, a data entry operator at the BSE office.
According to Vinaytosh Mishra, Director General of Police (Crime Branch), Moharana first circulated the leaked handwritten question paper to two other individuals before it went viral online.
Though Moharana was not authorized to access the question paper, Mohanty allegedly gave him access to his laptop, where the exam paper was stored. Mohanty was responsible for proof-reading the paper, making corrections, and then deleting it from the system — a protocol he failed to follow.
Crime Branch investigations revealed over 100 phone calls between Mohanty and Moharana beyond office hours over three months, indicating deliberate collusion.
So far, eight people including Mohanty and Moharana have been arrested. Police have announced a financial probe to investigate whether others were involved in this question paper leak scandal.
