Karnataka job fraud: Third-rank holder vet gets protection from arrest

“She is an average student. There was negative marking in the exam. Despite the negative marking, she has obtained 486 marks. In one paper, she attempted 95 questions and got 89 correct and six wrong. In another paper, she attempted 91 questions and got 83 right and eight wrong,” he said.

“The analysis has found that the answers she got wrong are the same as the answers that other successful candidates (suspected of fraud) got wrong. She chooses the same questions and gets the same answers wrong. This raises suspicion,” the prosecutor added.

“The analysis of the CDR for the candidate shows that she was in a location other than the one she was supposed to be at on the night of January 8,” he further said.

Jagadeesha said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has not arrested the candidate because certain technical reports related to her internet calls were awaited.

He also informed the court that the nine rank holders may be treated as approvers at the time of filing of a chargesheet.

The court was also informed that the CID had investigated one set of malpractices involving around 11 candidates and was now looking at a second set of malpractices involving around nine more candidates.

The candidate’s counsel, Parmeshwar Hegde, submitted that she had appeared before the CID three times and that she was willing to do so again if necessary.

The high court then adjourned the matter for 10 days. “Till the next date of hearing, the petitioner will not be arrested,” it said.

No anticipatory bail for ‘average student’

Nine of the 29 candidates, including the top two performers, named in the original FIR have been granted anticipatory bail by courts. The third-rank holder’s anticipatory bail application was rejected on August 18 by a special court, which found her to be an “average student”.

The CID probe has found that 11 candidates paid Rs 1.52 crore to an arrested middleman, Basavaraj Kannale, to obtain exam questions leaked by the controller of exams, IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, who has also been arrested.

The investigators, however, have not arrested any of the aspirants who allegedly paid bribes. They are awaiting further investigations of more candidates before deciding whether the aspirants will be approvers or accused.

The probe has found that three candidates who obtained the top three ranks in the backlog category and six who made it to the top 15 in the main category accessed the questions a day before their exam.

As many as 1,400 candidates appeared for the exams to fill 400 vacancies, and 329 were selected—56 in the backlog category and 273 in the main category.

Aspirants given questions at luxury villas

The investigators have found the IAS officer leaked the questions to the middleman on a pen drive, and he in turn provided the questions to aspirants he assembled at luxury villas on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Among the surprise performances under scrutiny is that of a candidate who obtained the 84th rank and 296.25 marks (49.37 per cent). Sources said the middlemen told him after the exam that he was unlikely to qualify unless he paid a bribe of Rs 30 lakh to tamper with OMR sheets. His payment was then cross-subsidised to fund a candidate who topped the backlog category, the sources added.

Incidentally, the investigation has found no evidence of OMR sheet tampering in the exam.