To monetize wife's YouTube channel, Odisha teacher uploads questions before exam

BHUBANESWAR: A govt school teacher was on Saturday arrested in Bhubaneswar for allegedly sharing question papers of classes 1 to 8 with his wife, who later uploaded them on her YouTube channel in order to gain more subscribers and monetise her videos.

The accused was identified as Jagannath Kar, 29, an assistant teacher of Gopinath Jew nodal upper primary school in Jajpur district. Though his wife is a co-accused in the case, the police did not arrest her as she is a lactating mother of a baby.

The cyber crime police station here registered a case on March 18 on the basis of a complaint filed by Anupam Saha, the project director of Odisha School Education Programme Authority (Osepa). Osepa alleged that some unidentified persons had leaked and circulated the question papers of the summative assessment-II of classes 1 to 8 on social media.

“We found during investigation that Kar collected the question papers on behalf of the head mistress of Itara primary school from the cluster research centre coordinator, Gopinath Jew nodal upper primary school on March 9, about a week before the examinations. Before submitting the questions in the school, he took them home. He and his wife scanned the question papers on a mobile phone. The same day, she uploaded the question papers on her YouTube channel,” deputy commissioner of police Prateek Singh said.

Police sources said her YouTube channel's subscription soared from around 5,000 to 30,000 after she allegedly uploaded the question papers.

“We came to know that the couple’s intention was to earn money from the YouTube channel by getting more subscribers, likes and shares of their videos. Investigation is under way to know how much they earned from the YouTube channel, the DCP said.