Bengaluru court grants ED eight more days of custody of IAS officer Gangwar
A Bengaluru court extended the ED's custody of IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar by eight days in the KPSC recruitment irregularities probe.
A Bengaluru court on Saturday extended the Enforcement Directorate's custody of IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar by a further eight days, as the agency pursues its investigation into alleged irregularities in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment process.
Gangwar was arrested by the ED a week earlier and had initially been placed in agency custody for six days. He was produced before the court on Saturday, where the agency sought an extension of his remand.
The ED told the court that its investigation had yielded material going beyond what the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had established in the alleged irregularities surrounding the Veterinary Officers' Recruitment Examination. It also submitted its findings in a sealed cover.
According to the agency, it suspects irregularities across multiple recruitment examinations and requires further custody to trace the alleged money trail and examine other aspects of the case.
At an earlier custody hearing, the ED alleged that Basavaraj Kannale, described as another key suspect and an associate of Gangwar, had told investigators that several candidates paid amounts of up to ₹1.5 crore. The agency further alleged that Kannale handed over ₹1.3 crore in cash to Gangwar.
On the strength of these allegations, the ED has opened a money-laundering investigation under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The agency has also alleged that Gangwar supplied Kannale with question papers and answers on an HP pendrive on January 7, two days before the examination was scheduled. A separate CID probe had earlier reportedly found that around 60 to 80 questions were leaked to candidates, and that about five candidates were allegedly given practice in answering them.
The allegations remain part of an ongoing investigation, and the extension of custody does not by itself establish guilt. Investigations by both the ED and the CID are continuing.