In Karnataka job fraud case, court cites flight risk to reject middleman’s bail plea

A special court in Bengaluru on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of a middleman, arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of veterinary doctors by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), over his attempt to fly to Uzbekistan during the investigation.

The court rejected the bail plea of Basavaraj Kannale, 36, who was arrested on August 30 at Delhi airport, based on prima facie evidence from the Karnataka Police Crime Investigation Department (CID) unit of his role in leaking exam questions to over a dozen aspirants who wrote exams for 400 veterinary doctor vacancies.

Kannale is accused of procuring the questions for the exam, held on January 8 and 9, 2026, from KPSC exam controller Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, an IAS officer who has also been arrested. He allegedly collected nearly Rs 40 lakh each from nearly 20 candidates to provide leaked questions.

‘Failed to prove it was a pre-planned tour’

The Karnataka CID arrested Kannale at New Delhi airport while he was there to catch a flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for a two-week trip. This came as the CID issued a lookout circular for him based on an investigation into the alleged scam in the KPSC recruitment of veterinary doctors.

“The air tickets prove that the petitioner was travelling to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The said document also shows several persons were travelling to the same places. But the tickets were booked from August 11 to August 25, 2026. But the present case was registered on August 24, and hence at this stage the petitioner has failed to prove that it was a pre-planned tour and not an intentional travel,” the special court said.

Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam, who appeared for Kannale, argued that his wife is due to deliver a child soon and he would be needed at the time of the delivery.

Public Prosecutor K L Bhagyalakshmi argued that Kannale was citing his wife’s advanced stage of pregnancy only to obtain bail, since investigations into his travel plans indicated he was flying to Tashkent without her.

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The Karnataka CID also presented evidence of communications and financial transactions between Kannale and Gangwar to argue that the middleman collected funds from KPSC aspirants and paid the IAS officer to leak the entrance exam questions.

“The respondent has made out prima facie materials against the petitioner regarding the alleged offence and also made out that if bail is granted there is a risk of absconding of the petitioner and thereby impeding further investigation,” the court said in its order.

“Such alleged unfair practices in selection of veterinary officers would encourage corruption and the poor deserving meritorious doctors are deprived of jobs. At this stage, the petitioner has not made out valid reasons to release him on bail,” the special court ruled.

Bank accounts, CCTV footage

The CID probe found that Gangwar, a 2016-batch IAS officer, leaked the entrance exam questions to a middleman, who in turn provided them to paying candidates and trained them to answer them at a resort in Bengaluru a day before the exam.

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The probe into the money trail has found that bribes paid by aspirants were used to buy Rs 52 lakh worth of jewellery for a friend of Gangwar’s, CID told the court on September 17 and 18 during a bail hearing for Kannale.

On Wednesday, during a bail hearing for the now-suspended IAS officer, CID told the court that the jewellery Gangwar’s friend bought with money from the veterinary exam fraud was recovered in Uttar Pradesh from the woman at Gangwar’s instance, which it said established his link to the bribe paid by aspirants.

CID produced records of bank accounts in Karnataka’s Bidar through which it said the money paid by the aspirants was moved. It also produced CCTV footage of Gangwar and a woman buying gold jewellery worth Rs 28.94 lakh and diamond jewellery worth Rs 23 lakh at a showroom near Bengaluru’s Commercial Street in March and July, respectively.

For the first jewellery purchase by the IAS officer on March 10, Rs 18 lakh was paid from the account of Kannale’s associate, identified as Rajashekhar, and Rs 8 lakh from another associate, Umesh B R, CID told the court.

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“They paid only Rs 3 lakh for the jewellery worth Rs 52 lakh. The rest was paid by Kannale through associates,” the state prosecutor said during bail arguments.

Dr S Manjunath, an unsuccessful candidate, filed a First Information Report on July 24, alleging that 29 aspirants with poor academic records scored above 450 out of 600 in the entrance exams for veterinary doctors. Out of 1,400 candidates who appeared for the exams, 329 were eventually selected.

KPSC withheld the results announced on July 17 after allegations of a scam emerged on July 24, and the Karnataka Government ordered a CID investigation.