Officer who certified Rs 40,000 as Karnataka PSC chairman’s annual income faces arrest

Suma, daughter of suspended KPSC chairman Shivashankrappa S Sahukar, was allegedly selected by the KPSC to the post of an industrial extension officer with the alleged fake certificate.

A Bengaluru court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a government revenue inspector who allegedly provided a false income certificate to the daughter of the now-suspended Karnataka Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman to facilitate her appointment in government service earlier this year.

Shivasharanappa, who now faces the prospect of arrest, had allegedly certified that the family of suspended KPSC chairman Shivashankrappa S Sahukar earned a meagre Rs 40,000 per annum – as opposed to a monthly salary of Rs 2.25 lakh.

The forged document was allegedly prepared for Sahukar’s daughter, Suma Sahukar, who was seeking recruitment in the state Industries and Commerce Department under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

The Bengaluru Sessions Court had earlier granted anticipatory bail to Suma, 28, the prime accused in the case.

“The revenue inspector who had issued a false income certificate to the main accused in the case had sought anticipatory bail on September 8. The plea was rejected today by the court,” Basavalingappa Bistagond, the public prosecutor for the case, said.

Suma was allegedly selected by the KPSC to the post of an industrial extension officer, under an OBC quota, with the alleged fake certificate.

According to the First Information Report filed on July 10, B N Shoba, an assistant secretary at the KPSC, stated that the commission called for recruitment to 50 posts of industrial extension officers in March 2024; Suma applied under the OBC III B category, wrote the entrance exam in July 2025, and was selected in January 2026.

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The candidate is alleged to have produced an income certificate during document verification in February.

The documents also revealed that the candidate was the daughter of Sahukar, who became a KPSC member on September 3, 2019, with a salary of Rs 2.05 lakh per month and later went on to become the KPSC chairman on April 5, 2021, drawing a monthly salary of Rs 2.25 lakh, stated the FIR.

On August 25, Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot suspended Sahukar as KPSC chairman over the allegations.

The Karnataka High Court had also taken a stern view of the fraudulent recruitment of the then KPSC chairman’s daughter during the course of a September 7 hearing of an anticipatory bail plea filed by Sahukar in a separate KPSC recruitment fraud linked to the hiring of veterinary doctors.

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“It is also brought to the notice of this Court that daughters of the petitioner earlier managed to get appointment/selection in some other competitive examination conducted by KPSC by producing concocted and fraudulent documents in favour of their candidature,” the High Court said in a September 7 ruling to reject anticipatory bail for the KPSC chairman.

“Such frauds by the authorities concerned erode the faith of the public in the system and result in causing unrest among meritorious youth who are denied opportunity because of the fraud played by the authorities concerned in collusion with the non-meritorious undeserving candidates and other middlemen, for extraneous reasons,” the High Court said.

The current chairman of the KPSC was appointed in 2021 during the tenure of the BJP government headed by former chief minister B S Yediyurappa.

KPSC under scanner for multiple frauds

Multiple incidents of alleged recruitment fraud by the KPSC during the tenure of Sahukar have emerged in recent months.

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Apart from frauds in the recruitment of industrial extension officers and veterinary doctors, top KPSC officials are also accused of facilitating fraudulent practices in the selection of 384 gazetted probationers – where over two lakh aspirants wrote the preliminary exam in 2024 to gain entry into the Karnataka Administrative Services.

A KPSC member, Dr Shantha Hosamani, 62, is alleged to have obtained pecuniary benefits for selecting a candidate in the interview round of the now-stalled Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) selection process.

The KPSC member is alleged to have been part of the interview panel that selected a candidate, and preliminary CID investigations have revealed that the KPSC member and the candidate were in telephonic contact after the interview in violation of KPSC norms.

An ongoing investigation by the CID into corruption in the selection of veterinary doctors for 400 vacancies in the state has also revealed that the entrance exam process was compromised by middlemen who obtained leaked versions of the question papers from the KPSC controller of exams.

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The corrupt practices in government recruitments have continued through the tenure of the Congress government, which assumed power in May 2023 after the BJP government, sources familiar with the KPSC investigations said.