Odisha education board VP held over leak

BHUBANESHWAR

: Odisha police crime branch arrested Board of Secondary Education vice-president Nihar Mohanty Sunday for his alleged involvement in the leak of special Odisha Teachers' Eligibility Test (OTET) question paper on the eve of the July 20 exam.

Subsequently, OTET was cancelled.Earlier, the board's data entry operator Jitan Moharana was arrested on July 30 on charges of obtaining the question papers from Mohanty's laptop. Mohanty, responsible for overseeing the career progress test for in-service teachers, allegedly violated confidentiality protocols by allowing Moharana unauthorised access to his laptop, police said. "Only Mohanty had access to the password of his official laptop.

After receiving the draft questions from a printer based outside Odisha for final review, he failed to delete the file from his laptop as required by protocol, indicating possible wrongful intent and criminal nexus," said DG Vinaytosh Mishra.An analysis of telephone records revealed unusual communication patterns between Mohanty and Moharana, including over 100 calls outside office hours in the past two to three months, Mishra added. Crime branch also noted that Moharana had previously been removed from exam duties due to concerns over his integrity and conduct.