Bengaluru: The prime accused in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment scam, IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar and middleman Basavaraj Kannale, have been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.The order came Wednesday after their 10-day police custody with CID ended, leading officials to produce the two before a local court which sent them to Central Prison. Gangwar, a 2016-batch Karnataka-cadre IAS officer who was controller of examinations at KPSC during the controversial veterinary officer recruitment drive, is under the radar along with Kannale. A CID probe revealed an intricate job-for-cash network where question papers were allegedly leaked and OMR sheets manipulated in exchange for massive bribes.Investigators estimate that over Rs 12 crore was collected from multiple candidates, with individual bribes ranging between Rs 70 lakh and Rs 80 lakh per post. During their extended interrogation, investigators confronted the duo with recovered digital evidence, incriminating diaries listing candidate names and untoward financial transfers traced directly to bank accounts linked to the operation. CID sleuths also conducted raids, including at the residence of suspended KPSC chairperson Shivashankarappa Sahukar.With Gangwar and Kannale under judicial remand, CID officials said forensic evaluation of hundreds of OMR sheets and questioning of implicated candidates will continue.
