BHUBANESWAR: Cuttack police on Sunday arrested four YouTubers and a school teacher for their alleged involvement in leaking half-yearly examination question papers of classes VIII to X students.
The accused were identified as YouTubers Sahil Mishra of Sambalpur, Jyoti Ranjan Barik from Bhadrak, Susanta Bishi from Titilagarh, Sai Sankar Patra from Berhampur, and assistant teacher Ghanshyam Behera, posted at the panchayat high school in Mayurbhanj’s Rairangpur.
The matter came to light when the general secretary of Odisha Secondary School Teachers’ Association (OSSTA) filed a complaint with Daraghabazar police on November 1 alleging the question papers were leaked on some YouTube channels when the half-yearly examinations were underway from October 28 to November 4 last year.
The complainant had mentioned the names of YouTube channels - Smart Study Learn, Vibrate Education and Educational Gyan. Basing on the complaint, Cyber Crime and Economic Offence police registered a case in this connection under relevant sections of BNS, IT Act and Odisha Conduct of Examination (Amendment) Act.
Police then requested Google to share the details of the YouTube channels where the leaked question papers were uploaded. After receiving information about the names and phone numbers of the accused YouTubers, police asked the mobile service providers to provide their customer acquisition forms and call details records.
They verified the addresses and nabbed the four of them. While Sahil ran a YouTube channel by the name Educational Gyan, three other such channels - Smart Study Learn, Smart Odia and Vibrant Education - were being run by Jyoti, Susanta and Sai Sankar respectively.
“During interrogation, the YouTubers revealed they had received the question papers from Behera through a Telegram channel. Subsequently, Behera too was arrested from Rairangpur. However, another teacher involved is currently at large and efforts are on to nab him,” police said adding, further investigation is underway.