Odisha crime branch on Wednesday arrested six people, including two teachers, in connection with the Special OTET (Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test) 2025 examination paper leak.
The question paper was leaked one day ahead of the examination scheduled to be held on July 20 by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE).
The six accused have been identified as Jitan Moharana of Balasore, Bijay Kumar Mishra of Rayagada, Sanatan Bisoi of Koraput, Ram Jee Prasad Gupta of Cuttack, Ajay Kumar Sahoo of Ganjam and Jayant Kumar Rout of Balasore.
Addressing a press conference at Cuttack, director-general of police (DGP), crime branch, Vinaytosh Mishra said: “Establishment officer, BSE, Bulbul Behera filed a complaint about leakage of question papers of Special OTET-2025 examination scheduled to be held on July 20 by the BSE.”
He said: “On July 19 at about 10.45pm, the vice-president of BSE saw handwritten question papers which were exact replicas of the OTET-25 question papers with answers on Facebook and other social media platforms.”
Mishra said: “On examination and interrogation of accused persons, it was revealed that accused Jitan Moharana who worked as a data entry operator in the office of BSE, unlawfully accessed the laptop of the vice-president of BSE and obtained the question papers before the examination. He then disseminated the papers to the working president of state ex-cadre teacher association, namely Bijay Mishra and Sanatana Bisoi, the president of ex-cadre teachers association of Koraput district.”
The accused then enticed the gullible individuals who had failed in the last Special OTET examination and sold the papers to broker Ramjee Prasad Gupta, Ajay Sahoo and Jayant Kumar Rout. He said: “They received money as well as hard cash from those desperate teachers who wanted to qualify for the examination to receive benefits like regularisation of the job, increment of pay. “
The DGP said: “The accused persons hatched a conspiracy to exploit the teachers through fraudulent means of selling the leaked question papers. Preliminary investigation of the financial transactions reveals that the accused Jitan Moharana received ₹2,50,000 on his account during the reported period. Their nexus has been
operational in different districts and the racket is selling question papers in lieu of lakhs of rupees.”