Bail may be granted even in serious allegations pending trial, emphasizing that pre-trial detention requires proof of guilt not merely allegations.

JUDGMENT :

G. Satapathy, J.

1. Since these eight bail applications arise out of one and same case record, the same are heard together and disposed of by this common order with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

2. These eight bail applications are U/S.483 of BNS S Act by the petitioners for grant of bail in connection with CID CB PS Case No.06 of 2025 corresponding to GR Case No.595 of 2025 pending in the Court of learned Addl. Civil Judge-cum-JMFC-III (Cog. Taking), Cuttack, for commission of offences punishable U/S.303(2)/ 318(2)/ 324(3)/ 336(3)/ 337/ 338/ 49/ 238/ 112(2)/ 61(2)/ 3(5) of r/w Sec.09 of Orissa Conduct of Examination Act .

3. The case again demonstrates a case of leakage of question paper which in fact took shape in the chamber of the petitioner- Dr. Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Vice President, Board of Secondary Education (BSE) who was entrusted for smooth management of the question paper for the exam “Special Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test, 2025” (in short “OTET”, 2025), but the petitioner JitanMoharana, a temporary Data Entry Operator in active assistance with another Data Entry Operator namely Lopamudra Ray by taking advantage of the confidence of the petitioner Dr. Nihar Ranjan Mohanty surreptitiously obtained the soft copy of the question papers for OTET from the laptop of Dr. Nihar Ranjan Mohanty in a pen-drive and extracted the same to JPEG format and took out print-out of the three set of question papers on Paper-I and Paper-II and social study and destroyed the pen-drive to cause disappearance of evidence and thereafter, supplied the question paper to one Sanjay Mishra(brother of co-accused Bijay Mishra) and in the process, the question papers were transmitted to different co-accused persons from one hand to other hand, but the leakage of question paper, however, come to the knowledge of the authority just one day before the schedule examination to be held on 20.07.2025 forcing the authority to cancel the examination.

Accordingly, an FIR was lodged before the Crime Branch which was registered vide CID CB PS Case No.06 of 2025 resulting in investigation in the course of which the role of each of the individual petitioners was unearthed and they were taken into custody and on conclusion of investigation charge-sheet was submitted and the present petitioners are put to trial after they pleaded not guilty to charge framed U/Ss.49/61(2)/112(2)/238/303(2)/318/324(3)/336(3)/337/3(5) of BNS and r/w Sec.11(1) of Public Examination Act and Sec.9 of Orissa Conduct Examination Act.

4. Heard, Mr. Dhirendra Kumar Das, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9007 of 2025; Mr. Bibhu Prasad Tripathy, learned Sr. counsel who is being assisted by Mr. P. Agrawal, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9066 of 2025; Mr. Soura Chandra Mohapatra, learned Sr. counsel, who is being assisted by Mr. S. Mohapatra, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9108 of 2025; Mr. Bijay Kumar Ragada, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9227 of 2025; Mr. Debsnan Das, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9235 of 2025; Mr. Dhananjay Mund, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9246 of 2025; Mr. Rashmi Ranjan Mishra, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9656 of 2025; Mr. Bharat Jalli, learned counsel for the petitioner in BLAPL No.9685 of 2025 and Mr. P. Satpathy, learned Addl.PP in these matters and perused the record.

5. After having considered the rival submissions upon perusal of record, there appears allegation against the petitioners for leaking the question paper for Special OTET Exam for the purpose of wrongf