KPSC Recruitment Scam: ED Uncovers ₹50 Lakh Bribe Racket

The KPSC recruitment scam has blown open the Karnataka PSC scam — one of the biggest examination frauds in the state's recent history — with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleging that top public service commission officials ran an organised cash-for-selection racket. In a press release dated 8 October 2026, the agency said suspended KPSC chairman Sahukar Shivashankarappa, commission member B.V. Geetha and IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar operated as a gang to manipulate recruitment to 400 veterinary officer posts. The examination at the centre of the KPSC recruitment scam is the KPSC veterinary officer exam held on 8 and 9 January 2026. According to the ED, the racket worked through three channels: leakage of question papers, supply of candidate-specific answer keys, and exploitation of the 1:3 merit list to demand gratification from aspirants. ## KPSC recruitment scam: how the paper leak allegedly worked Investigators allege that Gangwar, who served as the KPSC Controller of Examinations and held custody of confidential material, extracted the correct answers to the first 80 questions using seating arrangements and access to jumbled question papers and answer keys. He allegedly passed the material to Geetha, who in turn supplied it to candidates for illegal gratification — the core of the alleged KPSC paper leak case. The agency says ten candidates were taken to a resort or Airbnb villa on the outskirts of Bengaluru a day before the examination and given a question paper containing 80 questions with the correct answers, which they were asked to memorise. Separately, six candidates allegedly received candidate-specific answer keys shortly before the test. ## Bribes of up to ₹50 lakh and the money trail The price of a guaranteed selection in the KPSC recruitment scam, the ED says, ranged from ₹20 lakh to ₹40 lakh per candidate, with an intermediary, Basavaraj Kannale, allegedly collecting between ₹40 lakh and ₹50 lakh from each of the ten resort candidates in return for facilitating their final selection. Geetha allegedly collected ₹20 lakh in cash as an advance from one candidate out of an agreed ₹40 lakh, while Sahukar allegedly took ₹10 lakh in advance out of ₹20 lakh. The probe has also turned up blank signed cheques worth ₹80 lakh and blank signed promissory notes seized from one of the successful candidates — instruments the agency believes were meant to secure the remaining bribe payments. The investigation rests on multiple FIRs registered at Bengaluru's Vidhana Soudha police station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — the legal backbone of the KPSC recruitment scam case. ## ED investigation KPSC: arrests and what comes next The ED investigation KPSC team has already made a string of arrests in the KPSC recruitment scam case. Gangwar was arrested on 18 September and Kannale a day earlier; Sahukar and Geetha were taken into custody in early October, with a special PMLA court granting the agency 14 days' custody for questioning. The agency describes the proceeds as a multi-crore cash-for-selection racket. The KPSC paper leak case has triggered demands for a wider audit of examinations conducted by the commission, with aspirants' groups calling for the veterinary officers' recruitment to be scrapped and re-held. The state government has suspended the accused officials, but the opposition has demanded accountability higher up the chain. ## What the KPSC recruitment scam means for aspirants For lakhs of candidates who prepare for years for government examinations, the KPSC recruitment scam is a reminder of how high the stakes of institutional integrity are. The KPSC veterinary officer exam was meant to fill 400 sanctioned posts in the animal husbandry department; instead, it has become a case study in how confidential examination systems can be compromised from the very top. The ED has said its investigation is continuing, with custodial interrogations expected to expose further linkages. For now, the message from the agency is unambiguous: the KPSC recruitment scam turned the keepers of merit, it alleges, into brokers of a bribe bazaar — and the Karnataka PSC scam is now a test case for whether the law can catch up.