Bhubaneswar, Aug 3: Odisha Crime Branch on Sunday arrested the Vice President of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) Nihar Ranjan Mohanty for his alleged involvement in the Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET) question paper leak case.
Crime Branch DG Vinaytosh Mishra said that during the course of investigation, clear-cut negligence on the part of BSE Vice President Nihar Ranjan Mohanty was found.
He stated that Mohanty had a suspicious relation with the prime accused, Jitan Moharana, who was working as a data entry operator in the office of the BSE.
He said that so far, eight people have been arrested in the question paper leak case, including the BSE vice-president and a data entry operator.
During the investigation, police found that Jitan Moharana first shared the handwritten question paper with two other accused, and later it went viral on social media.
Mishra told reporters that when the Crime Branch began investigating how Moharana got access to the question paper, since he wasn't authorized to do so, they found that the vice-president was working closely with a Bhopal-based agency responsible for printing the question paper.
He said that, as per the rules, Mohanty was given access to the question paper through an ID and password. His job was to proofread the paper, make any needed changes, and then delete it from the computer.
However, the DGP said they found that Mohanty did not delete the question paper from his laptop and allowed data entry operator Jitan Moharana to access it, even though Jitan had no role in handling the question paper.
He added that while checking the call records, the Crime Branch found that Mohanty had spoken to Jitan Moharana over the phone more than 100 times outside of official hours in the past three months.
The DGP said that Moharana had no role in conducting the examination, yet the vice-president had knowingly given him access to the laptop. This allowed Moharana to leak the question paper. As a result, both are equally responsible in the question leak case.
He said the police will now begin a financial investigation into the question paper leak case, and added, "We are also looking into whether any other person was involved in the incident."
