Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], August 2 (ANI): On the Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET-2025) exam, which was postponed following a question paper leak, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Lenin Mohanty alleged that the women, youth and examinees are not safe under the BJP government in the State and youths appearing for exams are slowly losing their hope.
The BJD leader said, “In the last one year, exactly 14 months, there has been around 13 question paper leaks of various examinations in our state Odisha. It is pathetic. It has become a state under this regime, the BJP regime, where the woman are not safe, where youths are not safe, where examinees are not safe and ultimately the youths who are appearing for examinations, slowly they are becoming hopeless.”
“In the OTET examination, where there must be around 75,000 applicants coming from different parts of the state, they were informed in the morning that the question paper had leaked at 2 o’clock in the night,” Lenin Mohanty added.
Mohanty urged authorities involved whether they could refund the amount of money spent by the examinees, refund the time spent on preparation, or justify why they put them in this problem.
BJD leader added, “The worst part of this is after such a huge chaos, the government has come forward with an explanation that a data entry operator is involved and the reason given is the question paper leak, the main link has been found to the laptop of the Vice Chairman of the Board of Secondary Education whom they say now that the DTP operator is the mastermind this.”
Mohanty sought the resignation of the minister who is in-charge of school and mass education and asked the Chief Minister to come out and take a stance. He also demanded action against the Vice Chairman of the board of secondary education, whose laptop contained the question papers.
“We have demanded today very clearly that the minister who is in charge of school and mass education, who has a very decimal record in handling the SC/ST department as well, he should either resign or the CM should come out and take some stance, which should be kind of accepted by the people of the state. Second, they should take action against the Vice Chairman of the board of secondary education whose laptop contained the question papers, Nihar Ranjan Mohanty and they should ensure that such things do not happen because just by framing laws, few days back they framed a law that anybody found doing this would be fined 1 crore and would be jailed for around 10 years. In the last one year, there hasn’t been not one case where somebody has either be fined or has been jailed,” he added.
The BJD leader also said that examinees who faced harassment while giving their exams should be given Rs 1 lakh, as per the High Court orders but they it hasn’t been given till now.
He said, “In the similar way, the OPSC was directed…through various high court rulings that it should conduct its examination in a very meticulous way. The high court had also directed in a matter concerning to the Odisha Judicial Service examination that all those examinees who faced harrasment while giving their exam, they should be given Rs 1 lakh, and even till now that has been not given. The system has been broken down.”
Mohanty also sought that strict action should be taken against Nihar Mohanty and Nityananda Gond, only then justice would be delivered.
He added, “Therefore, we have a demand that strict action should be taken against all those who are really involved, not by escaping and pinpointing some data entry operator. On the other hand, they should pinpoint Nihar Mohanty, the Vice Chairman, take action against him. They should pinpoint against the Nityananda Gond, take action against him, only then justice will be delivered.”
Meanwhile, the Odisha Crime Branch has solved the OTET-2025 question paper leak case, linked to the examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha. Six individuals involved in the incident have been arrested, announced DGP, Crime Branch, Binaytosh Mishra, during a press conference on Thursday.
The police have seized electronic devices, including mobile phones and leaked question papers, from the accused. Preliminary investigations indicate that financial transactions related to the leak were conducted through digital payment platforms, according to Odisha police.
The bank accounts of the accused are currently under scrutiny, and further investigation is ongoing to apprehend other individuals involved, DGP Mishra added.
Odisha Crime Branch DGP Vinaytosh Mishra said that the OTET exam, scheduled for July 20, was postponed after the question paper was leaked. A case was registered, and an investigation led to the arrest of six individuals, including a data entry operator from the Board of Secondary Examination office who accessed and circulated the paper.
Speaking to ANI, Odisha Crime Branch DGP, Vinaytosh Mishra said, “On July 19, the President of the Board of Secondary Education noticed that the exam, which was scheduled to be held for OTET on 20th, the question paper had been leaked. So the exam was postponed…We registered a case, and a team was formed. An investigation was initiated throughout Odisha. We found that the main leader is a data entry operator who is working in the Board of Secondary Examination office. He somehow found access to the laptop in which the question paper was kept. From there, he circulated it to different persons…All six people have been arrested.”
Further investigation is ongoing to identify additional culprits. (ANI)
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