Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: Former director of the Orissa Council of Educational Research and Training Sebak Tripathy was today sent to judicial custody till November 11 after the vigilance court rejected his bail plea.

Vigilance police today arrested Tripathy for misappropriation of funds worth more than Rs 48 lakh during his tenure as the director. The Orissa government, on October 15, asked the vigilance to probe into the alleged misappropriation and financial impropriety.

Tripathy is alleged to have taken illegal remuneration from the schematic funds placed by the government over the years. He had been holding the director’s post of since January 2006 till October this year. The vigilance took over the investigation after the school and mass education department asked the anti-corruption wing of Orissa police following green signal from the chief minister’s office.

In another development, Tripathy has been reverted to the higher education department and Satyakam Mishra, president of the Board of Secondary Education, has been given additional responsibility as the research and training director.

Official sources said a series of complaints against Tripathy had prompted the mass education department to initiate an inquiry against him. A committee was set up in March and it submitted its report, confirming the allegations of financial embezzlement in May. The audit reports, too, had pointed at impropriety by Tripathy, who was subsequently issued a showcause notice to explain his stand by August 15.