Odisha: 3 teachers held for messaging answers to student during exam

Berhanpur: Three teachers, including a headmaster, were arrested for allegedly messaging answers through a mobile phone to a student during the held matric examination in Odisha’s Ganjam district.

The teachers, arrested on Sunday, were identified as Rama Chandra Polai, headmaster of Santosh Pur Panchayat high school, Bansidhara Biswal and P Naba Patra, assistant teachers in Bharati Vidyapitha, Ganjam and primary school, Raulibandha, respectively, a police officer said.

On February 29, a candidate came to the examination centre at Bharati Vidyapitha, about 20 minutes late after examination started, inspector in charge of Ganjam police station, Ramakanta Mahallick said. A mobile phone was recovered from his pocket by the invigilators during checking.

After some time, some messages and missed calls came to the phone. On checking, answers of the questions were found in the SMS following which centre superintendent Sudhir Kumar Padhi handed over the phone to district education officer (DEO) Sanatana Panda.

“The teachers were arrested under relevant sections of Odisha Conduct of Examinations Act-1988,” Mahallick said. They were presented in court which sent them on judicial custody for 14 days.

The mobile to which they had allegedly sent answers of the questions of mathematics, was also seized, the inspector said.

Appropriate action would be taken against the teachers after getting the reports from the police, the DEO said.