KPSC recruitment scam: ED arrests suspended chairman and member over alleged ₹20–40 lakh bribe scheme

Delhi – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested suspended Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) chairman Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar and KPSC member B.V. Geetha in connection with alleged manipulation of the recruitment exam for 400 Veterinary Officer posts. Searches were conducted at their residences under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money‑Laundering Act, and both were produced before the Special Court for PMLA cases (CCH‑4) on Wednesday, which granted the ED 14 days’ custody of each accused. The arrests followed raids at their official and residential premises and are part of a broader probe into corruption in state recruitment processes.

The ED’s investigation uncovered an organised mechanism that allegedly involved leakage of question papers, candidate‑specific answer keys and misuse of the confidential 1:3 merit‑list to extort money. According to the agency, certain candidates were supplied with the correct answer keys a day before the Veterinary Officers’ examination on 8 January 2026 in return for bribes ranging from ₹20 lakh to ₹40 lakh. The agency described the leakage as a systematic breach of examination confidentiality that allowed candidates to obtain exact answers before the test.

Geetha is accused of obtaining the leaked keys from Jnanendra Kumar Gangwar, IAS, then Controller of Examinations at KPSC, who accessed the jumbled question papers and provided answers for the first 80 questions. Prosecutors say Geetha collected an advance of ₹20 lakh from one candidate against an agreed bribe of ₹40 lakh, while Sahukar took an advance of ₹10 lakh against a ₹20 lakh demand from another. The investigation traced the cash flow, noting that the advances were paid in cash. Six candidates who secured top scores in the final selection list have been identified, and the probe remains underway to identify all beneficiaries.

Earlier seizures included blank signed cheques worth ₹80 lakh and promissory notes from a successful candidate. Investigators also found that ten high‑scoring candidates were taken to a resort/Airbnb villa on the outskirts of Bengaluru a day before the exam, where they received a paper containing correct options for 80 questions to memorise. The marked paper was allegedly passed on by Gangwar through his close associate Basavaraj Kannale, who is reported to have charged ₹40 lakh‑₹50 lakh per candidate. Gangwar and Kannale were arrested on 18 September and 17 September respectively and remanded for 14 days; Gangwar is now in judicial custody. The ED also alleges that confidential merit‑list data were used to approach candidates with bribes of ₹10 lakh‑₹50 lakh depending on the post, exploiting a list that is normally not disclosed when publishing eligibility.

What to watch: further arrests and court hearings in the KPSC scam.

Editor's note: The report effectively synthesizes the provided full text, capturing the key arrests, the specific bribery amounts, and the operational details of the scam.