BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch of Odisha Police on Monday started its probe into the irregularities in preparation, approval and publication of school textbooks for classes I to VIII in the state.
The agency has registered a case under sections 316(5), 201, 3(5), and 61(2) of BNS basing on the complaint filed by Teachers Training and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) director Madhusmita Sahu. DSP Narendra Kumar Behera has been appointed as the investigating officer of the case under the supervision of Crime Branch SP.
Issuing a statement, the state police headquarters said the agency has constituted multiple teams to conduct a thorough and impartial probe. “Every aspect of the textbook process including preparation, approval, processing and publication of school textbooks from Class I to VIII will be examined,” it stated.
The Crime Branch said required documents, records and other evidences will be collected and persons related to the mater interrogated.
Earlier, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had stated that the government suspects a larger conspiracy behind the unusually high number of printing errors in school textbooks. Accordingly, it decided to withdraw all defective copies and replace them with newly-printed ones.
Last month, the state government formed a three-member committee headed by development commissioner DK Singh after a staggering 1,678 factual, typographical and printing errors were detected in school textbooks across subjects.
Based on the committee’s findings, the government had suspended then SCERT director Manoj Padhi along with three assistant directors.