Cuttack: Orissa high court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to three suspended assistant directors of the state Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in connection with the crime branch probe into the controversial school textbook errors that triggered a statewide row.A single-judge bench of Justice V Narasingh passed the interim order while hearing separate anticipatory bail petitions filed by Dilip Kumar Sahu, Pralipta Mishra and Bharati Tudu. The court directed the investigating agency to produce the case diary and posted the matter for further hearing on Aug 3. The interim protection against any coercive action will remain in force until then.The three officers were suspended after the state govt uncovered 1,678 factual, geographical and printing mistakes in newly introduced textbooks for classes I to VIII. The errors sparked widespread criticism over the quality of educational material supplied to govt schools, prompting the govt to order a crime branch investigation.Acting on the govt’s direction, the crime branch registered a case on July 13 under Sections 316(5), 201, 3(5) and 61(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, alleging offences including criminal breach of trust, disappearance of evidence, common intention and criminal conspiracy.During the course of the investigation, crime branch teams seized printing records, tender documents and manuscript-related files from the offices of SCERT, Odisha Textbook Preparation and Marketing (OTPM) and Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) to examine the process leading to publication of flawed textbooks.The probe already led to the arrest of former SCERT director Manoj Kumar Padhi, who has been booked on allegations of criminal negligence, conspiracy and criminal breach of trust. He allegedly approved the print-ready manuscripts without ensuring proper factual verification, paving the way for publication of textbooks riddled with errors.The anticipatory bail petitions of the three suspended assistant directors will now come up before the high court on Aug 3, when the crime branch is expected to place the case diary and its progress report before the court.
