Criminal conspiracy’ behind errors in Odisha SCERT textbooks, senior bureaucrat arrested

3 min readUpdated: Jul 14, 2026 07:35 PM IST

Odisha’s former SCERT Director arrested over 'Newton the Pilot' and other absurd blunders in ₹175-Crore textbook disaster. (Special Arrangement/Enhanced using AI)

The Crime Branch of the Odisha Police on Tuesday arrested Manoj Kumar Padhy, former director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), on charges of “criminal conspiracy” in connection with the errors seen in school textbooks for classes 1 to 8.

Padhy, a senior Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer, had headed SCERT at the time the textbooks were prepared. SCERT is entrusted with the overall supervision, coordination, monitoring, and approval of the textbook development process as per the National Education Policy-2020.

The Crime Branch initiated its probe into the matter on Tuesday, a day after SCERT lodged a formal complaint about the alleged criminal conspiracy behind the large number of errors in the textbooks. The case was registered under various sections of the BNS, including criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and framing incorrect official documents knowingly.

‘Larger conspiracy’

Earlier, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi also suspected a “larger conspiracy” behind the errors in the textbooks, and subsequently ordered for a Crime Branch probe.

In a statement, the Crime Branch alleged that Padhy “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, translation and pictorial contents amounting to criminal negligence.

“Such acts and omissions resulted in the publication and distribution of erroneous textbooks, causing wrongful loss to the State Exchequer to the tune of approximately Rs 175 crore and corresponding injury to public interest,” read the statement.

Crime Branch sources said more officials from SCERT are under the scanner, and teachers engaged in the preparation of textbooks would also be questioned.

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On June 26, the state government suspended Padhy, along with three assistant directors, over the errors, and initiated disciplinary action against six more assistant directors.

The errors

As many as 1,678 errors were detected across 55 new SCERT textbooks for students in classes 1 to 8, including factual inaccuracies, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and wrong references. The class 8 textbooks have the highest number of errors — 705.

Among the errors were Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills being said to be in Jharkhand, and the Karnataka Assembly building being identified as the Odisha Vidhan Sabha. Sir Isaac Newton was described as the “great pilot” in the class 8 science book, while Hampi in Karnataka is identified as the Konark Sun Temple in another class 8 book.

The BJP government in Odisha faced widespread criticism from various quarters over the errors in the textbooks, while the main opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD), launched a statewide Sikhya Banchao Andolon (save education movement) over the issue.