What BJP, Congress ignored in Karnataka jobs scam: Bribes, withholding of marks, leaked papers
This newspaper spoke to several former KPSC members, officials and candidates, and reviewed their complaints, FIRs and court documents, tracing how these practices were refined over the years, staying a step ahead of sporadic attempts at reform.
(Inset) Shivashankarappa Sahukar was suspended on August 25; the KPSC office in Bengaluru (Express photo) Marks withheld and top scorers targeted for bribes; interview panels manipulated; tabulation records altered; answer sheets tampered with; and question papers leaked to select candidates.
These were some of the alleged irregularities flagged by job aspirants and, most significantly, officials within the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) in internal notes and complaints alleging serious manipulation in the recruitment process going back at least five years. These warnings were buried, first under a BJP government and later under the Congress dispensation that succeeded it, an investigation by The Indian Express shows.
This newspaper spoke to several former KPSC members, officials and candidates, and reviewed their complaints, FIRs and court documents, tracing how these practices were refined over the years, staying a step ahead of sporadic attempts at reform.
These irregularities are now the focus of investigations by the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and cases being heard in the Karnataka High Court.
These also led to the suspension last month of KPSC chief Shivashankarappa S Sahukar over the recruitment of his daughter in the state government and the arrest of IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar over the selection of veterinarians when he was controller of examinations from 2024 to 2026.
On Saturday, The Indian Express reported the findings of its investigation into how these scandals were part of a larger pattern of irregularities during the tenure of Sahukar who was handpicked by the BJP for the KPSC in 2019 and shielded by the Congress that came to power in Karnataka in 2023.
When contacted by The Indian Express, KPSC’s interim chairman Dr B Prabhudev listed a slew of reforms that are now on the anvil. “We are adopting the UPSC model and taking every precaution to ensure that no injustice is caused to meritorious candidates, eliminating any suspicion or mistrust in future recruitment processes,” he said.
Withhold marks, target for bribes
These reforms assume significance in the wake of the alleged irregularities that have come to light.
According to multiple KPSC officials, including then secretary Latha Kumari who put it on record in January 2024, a common malpractice within the recruitment system was to withhold marks after an examination, obtain the contact details of top-scoring candidates, and approach them individually for a bribe in exchange for assured selection – even though they were already likely to be selected on merit.
“When some (KPSC) secretaries insisted on making the marks public, the chairman and his supporters resisted hard. It would have upset the original modus operandi to extract money from desperate candidates,” said a former member.
A former high-ranking official of the commission alleged that the strategy would not have worked without compromising the office of the Controller of Examination. “The Controller is supposed to function independently and only his or her office would know the marks of individual candidates and also have the addresses and contact details of each candidate. Unless that insulated system was breached, nobody would know whom to approach for a bribe or how to reach them,” the official said.
A KPSC staff member told The Indian Express that then secretary Latha Kumari wanted to release the list of higher-ranked jobs first, to streamline recruitment, but was not allowed to do so.
“For example, many candidates qualified simultaneously for both Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer posts. If the AE list was released first, successful candidates would accept the higher-ranked posts and drop out of contention for JE posts. They would no longer be available to be targeted for bribes during the JE recruitment,” the staff member said.
Setting up dodgy interviews
Another common method of manipulation, according to a note prepared by then KPSC secretary Vikas Suralkar in September 2023, involved Commission members gaming post-examination interviews while serving on selection panels.
“The rule allows up to two KPSC members on an interview panel of four,” explained a former KPSC member.
And records from at least two recruitment exercises showed a stark pattern: candidates rated highly by the two experts were at the bottom of the members’ list, and vice versa. “We told the members that nothing could justify this contrast. A U-curve is still alright but not a V-curve,” said a former KPSC official.
The then-BJP government reduced the Personality Test provision from 200 marks to 50 marks in 2020, and further to 25 marks two years later. “From 200 out of a total 1,450 marks to 25 out of 1,275 marks, the weightage of the interview fell from 14 per cent to around two. This necessitated new and more brazen means of manipulation,” said a commission staff member.
Altering how marks are tabulated
Even before the interview weightage was reduced, according to two former KPSC officials, a section of the top brass allegedly manipulated marks at the tabulation stage – changes that would be “extremely difficult” to trace later.
Simultaneously, OMR answer sheets were also allegedly tampered with, which was flagged in a complaint after the July 2023 recruitment exam for Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE).
“The entire process is supposed to be on camera and OMRs are scanned at every level. In some cases, they even manipulated camera angles,” said one of the ex- officials. The list of vendors hired for examination-related work is never made public, they pointed out.
Leaking questions, tweaking answer sheets
There is no consensus among ex-officials and staff on when the manipulation reached the level of question-paper leaks. But the FIR in July this year regarding charges of bribery and manipulation in the recruitment of 400 veterinary officers is telling.
The complainants claimed that middlemen, allegedly operating on behalf of the then KPSC chairman and members, took certain candidates to hotels and resorts not far from the state boundary.
The candidates’ mobiles were switched off, and they were supplied with question papers and answer keys, they claimed. After being coached, they were dropped back at their respective exam centres, the complainants alleged. Others were allegedly approached after the test, once the list of eligible candidates was published with only names and registration numbers.
The complainants alleged middlemen also obtained details such as addresses and contact numbers of eligible candidates to offer them a chance to attempt additional answers in the OMR sheets, promising jobs for an advance payment of Rs 40 lakh out of a total bribe of Rs 80 lakh.
“As insurance for balance payment, the middlemen would keep original marksheets and other academic records. After the final selection list was announced, the balance Rs 40 lakh was to be paid. Once payment was made, the originals would be returned for document verification for recruitment,” said advocate Venkatesh Dalwai, representing the aggrieved candidates.
“If even one-third of the 400 posts was sold for Rs 80 lakh each, the total collection is in excess of Rs 100 crore,” he said, adding that the aggrieved candidates have no faith in any probe by the CID or any state agency.
But then, all of this came as no surprise to two former KPSC members this newspaper spoke to. Questioning how some of the Commission’s members obtained their coveted positions in the first place, one of them said: “They ensure that the political quota in the selection of candidates is not disturbed across party lines. In return, their corruption is not questioned.”
Sahukar did not respond to phone calls and messages for The Indian Express seeking comment.
Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter focused on offshore finance, equitable ... Read More
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