TNI Bureau: Former SCERT Director Manoj Kumar Padhy has been arrested by the Odisha Crime Branch in connection with the alleged textbook scam involving school textbooks for Classes I to VIII. The agency has alleged that the irregularities led to a loss of around ₹175 crore to the State exchequer.

According to the Crime Branch, he was responsible for supervising and approving the textbook development process. Investigators alleged that he approved manuscripts for publication without proper verification of factual, scientific, geographical, translation and pictorial content, resulting in the publication of error-filled textbooks.

Manoj Padhy was arrested and produced before a court in Cuttack. The Crime Branch said further investigation into the case is underway.