Odisha: Former SCERT director Manoj Padhy arrested over errors in school textbooks

BHUBANESWAR: Former director of Odisha's State Council of Educational Research and Training, Manoj Kumar Padhy, was sent to jail on Tuesday after his arrest in connection with the large-scale errors detected in school textbooks for students of Classes 1 to 8, a senior police officer said. Padhy, a senior Odisha Administrative Service officer, was earlier suspended based on the findings of a high-level inquiry committee headed by Development Commissioner D K Singh.

Three other assistant directors of the council were also suspended in the case. The errors in the textbooks for state-run schools caused losses to the tune of around Rs 175 crore to the exchequer, the police said. Padhy, who was arrested after a four-hour questioning by personnel of the CID- Crime Branch , was produced before the JMFC-III, Cuttack, which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days, government pleader Nityananda Panda said.

"The state government has strongly opposed Padhy's bail petition as the investigating agency has found prima facie evidence against him," Panda said. However, Padhy's lawyer Subhasish Mishra claimed that his client was innocent and has become a "scapegoat" in the matter.

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High-level committee was set up

Earlier, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had constituted the high-level committee following widespread criticism over the errors in textbooks, including a reference describing scientist Isaac Newton as a pilot. On Monday, the crime branch of the Odisha Police constituted multiple teams to probe various aspects of the errors detected in school textbooks. The CID-Crime Branch registered a case after the director of teacher education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) , Madhusmita Sahoo, lodged a complaint.

"As prima facie evidence is well established against Manoj Kumar Padhy (57), he was arrested and a case registered against him under BNS sections…," The CID-Crime Branch said in a statement. During the course of investigation, it has been found that Padhy, as the then director of SCERT, was entrusted with the overall supervision, coordination, monitoring and approval of the textbook development process under the National Education Policy-2020, it said.

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"However, he dishonestly failed to discharge the official duties entrusted to him and knowingly approved and forwarded print-ready manuscripts for publication without ensuring verification of their factual, scientific, geographical, translation and pictorial contents amounting to criminal negligence," an official said.

The matter came to the fore after a section of teachers found over 1,600 mistakes in textbooks supplied by the state government. Meanwhile, opposition BJD and Congress questioned the "delay" in initiation of a crime branch inquiry into the matter. "The delay was made to destroy evidence in the case," alleged BJD youth wing president Chinmay Sahoo, and demanded a CBI probe.