The Odisha police’s Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested the former Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in connection with the alleged criminal conspiracy in the preparation of school textbooks riddled with errors for Classes 1 to 8.

The Crime Branch, which is investigating the case, said senior Odisha Administrative Service officer Manoj Kumar Padhy was entrusted with the “overall supervision, coordination, monitoring, and approval of the textbook development process” under the National Education Policy 2020 during his tenure as SCERT Director.

“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, and pictorial contents, amounting to criminal negligence,” read a statement issued by the Crime Branch.

“Such acts and omissions resulted in the publication and distribution of erroneous textbooks, causing wrongful loss to the State exchequer of approximately ₹175 crore and corresponding injury to public interest,” it added.

Mr. Padhy was charged under Sections 316(5), 201, 61(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. He was among four officers who were placed under suspension after a high-level committee headed by Development Commissioner D.K. Singh found lapses in the preparation of the textbooks. Six other employees are facing disciplinary action in the case.

While some of the mistakes were grammatical and spelling errors, others involved factual inaccuracies. The government had acknowledged that there were 1,678 mistakes in all in different textbooks.

Published - July 15, 2026 12:51 am IST