Hubballi, 28 August

Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi alleged that the Congress government in Karnataka was shielding a missing IAS officer allegedly linked to the KPSC recruitment scam and demanded that the officer be traced and produced before investigating agencies.

Joshi was reacting to reports of Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar going missing. Gangwar was the Controller of Examinations at the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) when the veterinary officer recruitment examination was held, and allegations of large-scale irregularities in the process have since surfaced.  The Enforcement Directorate had recently raided premises linked to Gangwar in Bengaluru and Uttar Pradesh.

“The government has a role in this. The government is a participant in this. The government is the beneficiary of this scandal," Joshi alleged while speaking to reporters here.

Joshi asked how a senior bureaucrat could disappear without the government's knowledge.

Joshi alleged that the government could not even disclose the officer's whereabouts and claimed that his questioning by the ED or the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) could expose the alleged KPSC scam and the involvement of those in the government.

"If the ED or CID takes him into custody, the entire government's scandal will come out. Many of those who are sitting in the government today will be caught," he alleged.

He challenged the State government to trace Gangwar and cooperate with the ED if it had nothing to hide.

"If the government is clean, bring him back and let the ED handle him," Joshi said, alleging that the Congress government was "trapped" in the matter.

The Karnataka Cabinet recently decided to recommend to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot the suspension of KPSC Chairman Shivashankarappa S Sahukar.

Joshi further alleged that the officer had been kept somewhere "under the protection of the government machinery" and said there were reports of a threat to his life as several facts could emerge during his interrogation. “Whatever is in the almirah, nobody knows. Whatever is in the cupboard, nobody knows”.

Joshi also celebrated Raksha Bandhan at an event organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Hubballi Mahanagara, where Sangh members tied a Rakhi to him.