Odisha board vice-president held in teacher eligibility test question paper leak
Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, vice-president of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), was involved in setting the OTET question papers and was coordinating with a Bhopal-based firm that printed the papers, state crime investigation department (CID) chief Vinaytosh Mishra said.
'But before the question papers went for printing, the firm had sent a password-protected copy of the paper to Mohanty for proofreading. Mohanty was supposed to download and delete the file after proofreading. However, he allowed Jitan Moharana, a data entry operator working in the office of the controller of examinations, to access his laptop who leaked the papers,' Mishra said.
So far, seven others, including a teacher, have been arrested in connection with the paper leak.
The CID found the proofread copy on Mohanty's laptop, which led to his interrogation. Over 100 telephone calls between Mohanty and Moharana over the past three months, outside of office hours, were found in the call logs.
Mohanty, who has been overseeing examinations for the past 11 years, was arrested based on evidence collected.
Moharana and five others were arrested on July 30, following which a teacher was nabbed. Moharana had access to the vice-president's laptop and obtained the question paper using a pen drive. He then shared it with the working president of the State Ex-cadre Teachers' Association and its Koraput unit head, who sold the paper to three brokers for ₹2.5 lakh.
The BSE conducts final examinations for various state-sponsored courses, including Class X board exams, OTET, Odisha Secondary School Teacher Eligibility Test (OSSTET), Teachers' Certificate (CT) examination, Certificate Course in Physical Education Examination (CPEd), and the Prathama and Madhyama examinations.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
ED summons top executives of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group: Report
ANI ED has summoned Anil Ambani in Rs 17,000-crore loan fraud case on August 5. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued summons to several top executives of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation, a day before Ambani himself is slated to appear before the agency. According to ET Now, which cited sources familiar with the development, senior group executives including Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Sateesh Seth are among those summoned. The ED has reportedly issued at least six summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) so far. All the executives had previously been subject to searches by the ED as part of its probe. The agency suspects that these individuals played key roles in orchestrating transactions that allegedly defrauded a consortium of Infrastructure shares were trading at Rs 296.15, down 4.99% on Monday at 1:51 PM. Meanwhile, Reliance Power's shares were down by 5.01% at the same time. An ET Bureau exclusive report on Monday revealed that the ED also plans to summon officials from nearly 20 public and private sector banks that had extended loans to various Reliance Group companies. The agency intends to question these officials on the due diligence exercised before sanctioning loans and the steps taken when repayments failed. 'We want to ascertain what action the banks took, if any, against the companies which defaulted. Did they lodge a complaint with any investigating agency, seeking registration of a criminal case against the companies?' a senior official told ET. According to the ET report, ED's line of inquiry will include understanding the credit assessment processes followed by lenders, many of whom are believed to have issued loans that later turned into non-performing assets. The money laundering investigation centres around alleged irregularities in loans worth approximately Rs 17,000 crore extended to three Reliance Group companies—Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), and Reliance Communications (RCom). According to ED data cited by the ET report, RHFL owes over Rs 5,901 crore, RCFL Rs 8,226 crore, and RCom nearly Rs 4,105 crore to various lenders. Apart from Yes Bank, other financial institutions involved include State Bank of India, UCO Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India, and Punjab and Sind Bank. ET was the first to report on August 1 that the ED had summoned Anil Ambani for questioning. He is expected to appear at the ED headquarters in New Delhi on August 5. In a development linked to the case, the ED on Friday arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL), for allegedly arranging a fake bank guarantee worth Rs 68 crore for a Reliance Group entity. The agency informed the court that Biswal had received Rs 5.40 crore from Reliance Power Ltd, parent company of Reliance Nu Bess Ltd, in return for the forged guarantee submitted for a tender floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI). According to the ED, documentary evidence indicates collusion between Biswal Tradelink and Reliance Nu Bess, contradicting the latter's claim of being defrauded. A senior official told ET, 'Documentary evidence reveals that apparently the two parties acted in collusion. The directors of Biswal Tradelink were found to be previous directors of Reliance Group.'The agency also recovered several incriminating documents and digital devices during its August 1 raids. It alleged that BTPL maintained multiple undisclosed bank accounts and conducted transactions disproportionate to its declared turnover, with "dummy directors" used to facilitate Delhi Police FIR in the case was initially based on a complaint by Reliance Nu Bess, accusing BTPL of fraud. However, ED officials now believe the two firms may have been jointly involved in the a statement issued Friday, the Reliance Group maintained that it acted 'bonafidely' and was itself a 'victim of fraud, forgery, and cheating conspiracy.' The group stated it had made due disclosures to stock exchanges in November 2024 and had lodged a criminal complaint against the third party with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in October 2024.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
ED summons top executives of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group: Report
Live Events Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud: What the case is about? (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued summons to several top executives of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation , a day before Ambani himself is slated to appear before the to ET Now, which cited sources familiar with the development, senior group executives including Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Sateesh Seth are among those summoned. The ED has reportedly issued at least six summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) so the executives had previously been subject to searches by the ED as part of its probe. The agency suspects that these individuals played key roles in orchestrating transactions that allegedly defrauded a consortium of ET Bureau exclusive report on Monday revealed that the ED also plans to summon officials from nearly 20 public and private sector banks that had extended loans to various Reliance Group companies. The agency intends to question these officials on the due diligence exercised before sanctioning loans and the steps taken when repayments failed.'We want to ascertain what action the banks took, if any, against the companies which defaulted. Did they lodge a complaint with any investigating agency, seeking registration of a criminal case against the companies?' a senior official told to the ET report, ED's line of inquiry will include understanding the credit assessment processes followed by lenders, many of whom are believed to have issued loans that later turned into non-performing assets The money laundering investigation centres around alleged irregularities in loans worth approximately Rs 17,000 crore extended to three Reliance Group companies—Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), and Reliance Communications (RCom). According to ED data cited by the ET report, RHFL owes over Rs 5,901 crore, RCFL Rs 8,226 crore, and RCom nearly Rs 4,105 crore to various from Yes Bank , other financial institutions involved include State Bank of India Bank of India , and Punjab and Sind Bank ET was the first to report on August 1 that the ED had summoned Anil Ambani for questioning. He is expected to appear at the ED headquarters in New Delhi on August a development linked to the case, the ED on Friday arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL), for allegedly arranging a fake bank guarantee worth Rs 68 crore for a Reliance Group entity. The agency informed the court that Biswal had received Rs 5.40 crore from Reliance Power Ltd , parent company of Reliance Nu Bess Ltd, in return for the forged guarantee submitted for a tender floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI).According to the ED, documentary evidence indicates collusion between Biswal Tradelink and Reliance Nu Bess, contradicting the latter's claim of being defrauded. A senior official told ET, 'Documentary evidence reveals that apparently the two parties acted in collusion. The directors of Biswal Tradelink were found to be previous directors of Reliance Group.'The agency also recovered several incriminating documents and digital devices during its August 1 raids. It alleged that BTPL maintained multiple undisclosed bank accounts and conducted transactions disproportionate to its declared turnover, with "dummy directors" used to facilitate Delhi Police FIR in the case was initially based on a complaint by Reliance Nu Bess, accusing BTPL of fraud. However, ED officials now believe the two firms may have been jointly involved in the a statement issued Friday, the Reliance Group maintained that it acted 'bonafidely' and was itself a 'victim of fraud, forgery, and cheating conspiracy.'The group stated it had made due disclosures to stock exchanges in November 2024 and had lodged a criminal complaint against the third party with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in October 2024.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Kerala man ends life over inability to fund son's engineering admission
A 47-year-old man took his own life in a forest in this district after becoming upset that he could not arrange money for his son's engineering college admission, police said here on Monday. The man, identified as VT Shijo, was found hanging in the Moongampara forest on Sunday evening.(Pexel) The man, identified as VT Shijo, was found hanging in the Moongampara forest on Sunday evening. His son had secured a place at an engineering college in Tamil Nadu, but the family was unable to pay the required fees. Relatives said Shijo had been facing severe financial difficulties. He had been expecting the 12 years' salary arrears due to his wife, an aided school teacher whose appointment was confirmed by a court earlier this year. She had started receiving her salary since February this year, but there had allegedly been a delay by DEO officials in clearing the arrears for the past 12 years. Police believe the family's financial struggles and the inability to fund the college admission led to the tragedy. His body has been handed over to the relatives after a post-mortem examination, they said. Note: Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. A few major suicide prevention helpline numbers in India are 011-23389090 from Sumaitri (Delhi-based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based).
