Nine candidates in a Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) examination held this year for recruiting veterinary doctors paid Rs 1.52 crore in bribes to get question papers in advance. The leak helped three of them secure the top ranks in the backlog category and six others land in the top 15 of the main category, according to the state police and Enforcement Directorate investigations.The lowest-ranking candidate — identified as being part of the KPSC exam scam in the now-withheld final selection list of 329 candidates — has obtained the 84th rank in the main category, the analysis of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and ED shows.The CID unit of the Karnataka Police and the Enforcement Directorate have placed an IAS officer, Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, the former Controller of Exams at the KPSC, and a middleman associated with the BJP, Basavaraj Kannale, who solicited aspirants willing to pay bribes to access the questions prepared for the exams held on January 8 and 9, under arrest.The probe agencies, however, have not arrested any of the aspirants who paid bribes. They are awaiting further investigations of more candidates on the suspects’ list before deciding whether aspirants will be approvers or accused.The CID probe has so far found that 11 aspirants paid a total of Rs 1.52 crore for the exam fraud. A total of 1,400 candidates appeared for the exams for 400 vacancies, and 329 were selected, with 56 in the backlog category and 273 in the main category.Also read | One name led to another to crack the ‘black box’: How Express investigated Karnataka jobs scamThe two separate probes have found – according to revelations presented in the court – that the IAS officer leaked the questions a day before the veterinary doctors’ exam to the middleman, who in turn provided the questions to aspirants who were brought to luxury villas on the outskirts of Bengaluru based on advance payments.1st, 2nd,3rd rankholders paid Rs 50 lakhThe analysis of the investigations reveals that the candidates who were placed in the first, second and third position in the backlog category (56 posts where aspirants have pending exams to clear) paid Rs 50 lakh to the middleman and his associates.Story continues below this adIn the backlog category, the first rankholder scored 481.5 marks out of 600 or 80.5 per cent, the second rankholder scored 411.75 or 68.62 per cent, and the third rankholder scored 400.5 marks or 66.75 per cent.The analysis also reveals that persons who obtained the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 13th ranks in the main category paid Rs 77 lakh and obtained 483.75 marks or 80.62 per cent, 483 marks or 80.5 per cent, 471.5 marks or 78.50 per cent, and 443.25 marks or 73.87 per cent, respectively.Also read | ‘KPSC filled with thieves’: Shivakumar says may close Commission amid probeThe seventh and 10th rank holders in the entrance exam also allegedly paid undisclosed amounts and obtained 468.75 marks (78.12 per cent) and 458.25 marks (76.37 per cent).The top two scorers scored 493.5 marks or 82.25 per cent, and 487.50 marks, or 81.25 per cent, respectively. The top two performers have so far not been found to be among the category of persons who paid bribes to succeed in the veterinary entrance exam.Story continues below this adAmong the surprise performances in the category of aspirants alleged to have paid bribes is that of a candidate who obtained the 84th rank, who is alleged to have paid Rs 30 lakh but got only 296.25 marks, which is 49.37 per cent.Sources said the aspirant who obtained the 84th rank was contacted by middlemen after the exam and was told that he was unlikely to qualify unless he paid Rs 30 lakh to facilitate illegal filling of OMR sheets submitted to the KPSC after the exams.The candidate who had previously not been part of the exam scam during the paper leak phase agreed to the offer to repair his OMR sheets, and his payment was cross-subsidised by the middlemen to fund a candidate who topped the backlog category ranks, sources said.Backlog category topper paid only Rs 5 lakh initiallyThe topper in the backlog category had paid only Rs 5 lakh initially to be part of the paper leak phase, but the main middleman, Kannale, allegedly insisted that he pay Rs 20 lakh and that nobody should be part of the scheme on a credit basis.Story continues below this adIncidentally, the CID probe has not found any evidence of OMR sheet-linked tampering for selections in the veterinary doctors exam, unlike some other recent KPSC exams.Both CID and the ED seem to have unravelled the scam in the veterinary doctors exam through the dealings of separate candidates, according to the findings.Involvement of former minister’s gunmanThe CID found its way to the main perpetrators — Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar and Kannale — through a candidate who obtained the second rank in the backlog category. The candidate was put in touch with Kannale by the gunman of a former state minister, sources indicated.The second-rank candidate in the backlog category told investigators he received a WhatsApp call/message from a person in December 2025 who claimed that he would be assisted in clearing the exams and selection by the KPSC if he paid Rs 20 lakh in advance. The CID used the communication data of the candidate to identify the persons involved in the scam.Story continues below this adThe ED, on the other hand, followed the trail of the candidate who obtained the first rank in the backlog category and the candidate who got the fifth rank in the parent category.The first-rank candidate in the backlog category told investigators that he met one of the middlemen through a doctor at a veterinary hospital in Kalaburagi who demanded Rs 30 lakh for selection to the state services.He initially provided Rs 5 lakh to Kannale at a villa in Bengaluru on the day before the exam and promised to provide the remaining amount after selection. After he was unable to pay, the middleman allegedly extracted the amount from the 84th-rank candidate by promising to alter the OMR sheets.In the case of the fifth-rank candidate in the parent category, the ED was informed that the candidate was helped by a cousin in finding the middleman who could facilitate his selection through the KPSC exam. The ED’s investigations regarding the cousin’s financial affairs and communications led to the middleman Kannale.Story continues below this ad“It was discovered that all communications between candidates, intermediaries, Basavaraj Kannale and the exam controller were through internet calls. The candidates’ mobile phones have been seized and subjected to analysis,” the CID informed a special court this week.Nine more candidates under lensThe CID probe is looking at around nine more candidates who are suspected to have been a part of the KPSC veterinary doctors recruitment fraud. Out of 29 candidates named in the original FIR in the exam fraud case, nine have been granted anticipatory bail after comparing their academic records to the KPSC results.The 20 others named in the FIR remain under investigation, and some could be treated as approvers or witnesses, sources said.