Odisha: Board vice-president arrested in OTET question paper leak case

The police on Sunday arrested the vice-president of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) for his alleged involvement in the paper leak of the special Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET) 2025, a senior officer said.

The BSE was supposed to hold the special OTET-2025 on 20 July. However, the board was forced to postpone the examination after a handwritten question paper with answers went viral on social media a day before, the police officer said.

"During the investigation, clear-cut negligence of BSE vice -president Nihar Mohanty was found. He was having a suspicious relation with prime accused Jitan Moharana, who was working as a data entry operator at the office of the BSE," said Vinaytosh Mishra, director-general of police (crime branch).

So far, eight persons, including the BSE vice-president and a data entry operator, have been arrested in the question paper leak case, he said.

During the investigation, the police found that Jitan Moharana had first circulated the handwritten question paper to two other accused persons, and then it went viral on social media.

When the crime branch started investigating how Moharana was able to gain access to the question paper, as he didn't have the authority, it was found that the vice-president was coordinating with a Bhopal-based agency for printing of the question paper, Mishra told reporters in Cuttack.

As per protocol, only Mohanty had access to the question paper using an ID and password. He was supposed to proofread the question paper, make necessary corrections and then delete it from the computer, he said.

"However, we found that he had not deleted the question paper from his laptop and gave its access to the data entry operator Jitan Moharana even though he has no business dealing with the question set," the DGP said.

While examining mobile call records, the crime branch found that Mohanty had telephonic conversations with Jitan Moharana on more than 100 occasions beyond the official hours during the past three months, he added.

The DGP said Moharana had no role in the conduct of the examination. Still, the vice-president had deliberately given him laptop access, which helped him leak the question paper. So, both have an equal role in the question leak case.

The police will now start a financial investigation into the question paper leak case, he said, adding, "We are also trying to find out whether any other person was involved in the case or not."