Bengaluru: Investigations into alleged corruption in the recruitment of 400 veterinary officers conducted by Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) has taken an intriguing turn, with CID and Enforcement Directorate (ED) examining the role of two senior IAS officers in trying to shield arrested bureaucrat Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar.Gangwar, also an IAS officer, had served as the controller of examinations at KPSC from Feb 2024 to March 2026. It is alleged that a few candidates had paid around Rs 40 lakh each to access the question paper before the competitive exam was conducted. When the controversy erupted, Gangwar went out of public view for a few days, and the state govt had maintained that the IAS officer had gone to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh, citing a family medical emergency.However, sources associated with the investigations maintained that there were a lot of loose ends in the narrative.“Two senior bureaucrats from the state, including one with quasi-judicial powers, were advising him when the search was on. We are also ascertaining the role of a woman journalist based in Delhi. Apart from this, we are checking if Gangwar had travelled to Sri Lanka along with two of his batchmates before he was told to come back to Bengaluru in the backdrop of ED getting involved in the probe.”Meanwhile, CID officials continued to grill Gangwar and businessman Basavaraj N Kannale, who was arrested after a financial trail led to him. CID sleuths had visited the KPSC headquarters near Vidhana Soudha Wednesday evening and collected documents and conducted mahazar (spot inspection). During their visit, the CID sleuths questioned a few KPSC officials. Thursday afternoon, the officials took Kannale to his home at Vinayaka Layout in Sanjaynagar for mahazar.Sahukar seeks anticipatory bailSuspended KPSC chairperson Shivashankarappa S Sahukar, who has already been questioned by CID in the scam, has approached the high court seeking anticipatory bail after the special court rejected his plea. Public prosecutor BN Jagadeesha submitted documents, including those concerning alleged suppression of information about his daughter securing a job, before the court and objected to anticipatory bail. The judge directed the public prosecutor to file an objection Monday.
