What happened
Following weeks of outrage over factual errors discovered in Odia-language textbooks for Classes 1 to 8, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered the state Crime Branch to open a full criminal investigation into how the books made it to print. On July 14, the Crime Branch arrested former SCERT Director Manoj Kumar Padhy — already suspended over findings from a high-level inquiry led by Development Commissioner D K Singh — and a magistrate sent him to 14 days' judicial custody. Three assistant directors at the council were suspended alongside him. Investigators now peg the cost of the errors to the state exchequer at roughly ₹175 crore, official confirmation that Odisha's proofreading budget was, in fact, a line item all along — it just never got spent on proofreading.