The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) carried out simultaneous searches on 11 different premises of persons accused in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment scam and confiscated documents believed to be related to the scam.
In one of the biggest raids so far, a team of more than 100 CID officials led by Superintendents of Police Abdul Ahad and Ravi Channannavar searched the residential premises of the former KPSC chairman Gonal Bhimappa, member Mangala Sridhar and six others in Bangalore.
Documents seized
Hundred of files related to appointments, property documents and computers were seized, CID officials said.
Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police Soumendu Mukherjee, who led the operation, told The Hindu that the accused persons tried to destroy evidence by hiding and concealing files and documents.
Among the accused are Sudheer, Somnath and Rajshekhar, engineers working with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board. CID sources said they were examining whether the engineers became power brokers in the previous government and were instrumental in the appointment of KPSC members. They are suspected to have later acted as touts and collected money from candidates, offering good marks in the examination to facilitate their selection.
Scam size
“We suspect that the magnitude of the scam is over Rs. 200 crore, and we are looking at the beneficiaries and other persons involved in the scam,” CID sources said.
Correction
The name "Manjula" is corrected as "Mangala" in this copy
