Bengaluru: The scam in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), where the successful candidates were allegedly made to pay ₹ 80 lakh for selection is growing larger now with the Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy dragging the name of Home Minister Priyank Kharge in the earlier recruitment scam.
Meanwhile, the IAS officer Gyandendra Kumar Gangwar, who went absconding after the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) started questioning the people involved in the alleged scam, appeared before the CID sleuths on Friday morning, who are also investigating the allegations.
In a hurriedly convened press conference, Kumaraswamy released many documents pertaining to earlier recruitment by the KPSC for the post of Assistant Executive Engineers, when Priyank Kharge was holding the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.
Soon after the government came to power and Priyank Kharge assumed charge, the examinations to recruit AEEs were conducted and the provisional list of selected candidates were announced in Oct 2023, seeking objections from the public. Two days later, another aspirant Anand Sidda Reddy filed an objection through e.mail, raising his doubts over eight of the nine toppers, who could never even pass the earlier examinations conducted by the KPSC. Reddy also sought the details of their OMR sheets and CCTv footage of the examinations written by the eight candidates, Kumaraswamy said.
However, during the meeting of KPSC members, the KPSC Secretary said that the CCTv footage was not clear and since it was more than two months since the provisional list was published, there was no need to get into the details and the final list could be published. However, the members did not agree and formed a sub-committee to look into the issue. The Secretary did not cooperate and the sub-committee recommended sending the OMR sheets and CCTv footage to the forensic laboratory. When the forensic report pointed out discrepancies, the KPSC Secretary did not take any action. The issue even reached High Court, where the court made an oral observation that it might consider referring the case to CBI and directed the CBI Counsel Prasanna Kumar to be present during the next hearing of the case. However, the government hurriedly announced the final list and the selected candidates in question were appointed. All these things happened when Priyank Kharge was holding the RDPR portfolio, Kumaraswamy charged.
Meanwhile, referring to the IAS officer absconding after the ED raid, Kumaraswamy said that Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar was not absconding, but was hidden by the state government, so that the ED did not extract all information from him.
``He was the controller of examinations during recruitment of veterinary doctors. When he went absconding during ED raid, Home Minister Priyank Kharge said that he had spoken to the officer and the officer had gone to his native, Only after realising that the ED had gone to his house in Uttar Pradesh, Priyank Kharge said that he was not aware of whereabout of the officer,'' Kumaraswamy added.
Interestingly, the IAS officer Gangwar, who went absconding since Aug 22, appeared before the CID and gave his statement. Since Aug 22, he was not to be seen anywhere and no one could contact him. However, since CID had given his Friday to depose, he appeared and made his preliminary submissions for one and a half hour.
