KPSC exam scam: Bengaluru court rejects IAS officer’s bail plea, cites money trail

The court has also cited the alleged destruction of a Xiaomi tablet from the IAS officer, from which questions for the veterinary doctors’ exam held on January 8 and 9 were leaked via a pen drive handed to Kannale, as a reason for rejecting the bail plea.

The IAS officer is currently in the custody of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) after the Karnataka Police’s custody ended on September 9 and the officer was sent to judicial custody.

The ED is investigating the money laundering aspect of the fraud in the KPSC recruitment scam.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe has found that the KPSC exam controller had leaked the entrance exam questions to the middleman, a day before the exam in January.

The middleman is alleged to have collected Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh as bribes from 20 candidates who obtained top ranks in the exam.

The probe into the scam has found that bribes paid by aspirants were used to buy Rs 52 lakh worth of jewellery for Gangwar’s girlfriend, the CID has stated in court.

During the bail hearing, the CID told the court that the jewellery was recovered in Uttar Pradesh at the instance of the IAS officer — which established his links to the illegal funds generated through the KPSC fraud.

The CID produced records of bank accounts linked to Kannale through which the funds from aspirants moved, and CCTV footage of Gangwar and a woman buying gold jewellery and diamond jewellery on separate occasions at a showroom near Bengaluru’s Commercial Street in March and July.

An FIR filed by Dr S Manjunath, an unsuccessful candidate, on July 24 noted that 29 aspirants with poor academic records scored above 450 out of 600 in the entrance exams for veterinary doctors.

Out of 1,400 candidates who appeared for the exams, 329 got selected.

The results announced on July 17 were later withheld by the KPSC following allegations of the scam, and the Karnataka government ordered a CID investigation.

Candidate’s bail rejected in another KPSC scam

The special court has also rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a candidate who has been selected to be a gazetted probationer for the Karnataka Administrative Services (KAS) after allegedly influencing a KPSC member who was part of her interview panel for selection.

The special court had previously rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Shantha Hosamani, a KPSC member who shared 13 phone calls with an aspirant prior to the interview on May 8. The aspirant was among candidates selected for 384 gazetted probationer posts in a KPSC recruitment process earlier this year.

A corruption complaint was lodged against the KPSC member and the candidate by the All Karnataka State Students Association president, Kantharaj which led to the CID investigations.

“As per the call detail register, the petitioner had called Dr Shantha Hosamani prior to her interview, as the interview of the petitioner was fixed on 8.5.2026 as per the letter produced by the petitioner herself. As per the call details register, she had called the said member of KPSC from 8.4.2026 to 2.5.2026,” the special court noted in its September 24 order.

The court said the explanation given by the petitioner is not acceptable.

“The alleged conduct of the petitioner in the involvement of unfair practice in the selection process and also an attempt to influence the member for securing good marks in the interview is heinous and grave; it will affect the prospects of meritorious candidates in securing employment,” the court said while rejecting the anticipatory bail plea.

Over two lakh aspirants wrote the gazetted probationers preliminary exam in 2024, leading to the selection of 384 candidates. The Karnataka High Court stayed the pronouncement of the final selection list for the 384 KAS posts on July 31.