Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch arrested one more person in connection with the Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET) question paper leak case, bringing the total number of arrests to seven.
The latest arrest is Prashant Khamari, a teacher from Kalahandi.
“The accused, Prasant Kumar Khamari, a government UP school teacher at Bhejipadar, Bhawanipatna, hatched a criminal conspiracy with Bijay Kumar Mishra, Ex-Cadre Working President of State Ex-Cadre Teacher Association, and others. During the investigation, it was prima facie proved that Khamari orchestrated the crime, wrote the computerised question papers in his handwriting, and sold them to gullible teachers who had failed in the last Special OTET examination. We found that he transferred Rs 99,000 to Bijay Kumar Mishra via Phone Pay, which was collected from these teachers. The accounts of the alleged accused are currently under verification,” informed DIG, Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch also seized Khamari’s mobile phone and obtained his handwriting samples, which will be sent to the Handwriting Bureau and Cyber Forensics Lab for analysis.
So far, a total of seven persons have been arrested in connection with the leak.
Earlier, the Crime Branch had arrested Jitan Maharana, Bijaya Kumar Mishra, Sanatan Bisoi, Ramaji Prasad Gupta, Ajay Kumar Sahu, and Jayanta Kumar Rout in connection with the special OTET question paper leak case. The Crime Branch has revealed that this racket was active in various districts of the state, involving transactions worth lakhs of rupees.
The investigation is still underway to nab the remaining accused and unravel the full extent of the scandal.
