Karnataka jobs scam: She was hired to investigate him, but had red flags too - The Indian Express

It’s not just Shivashankarappa S Sahukar who enjoyed patronage across the aisle in the Karnataka Public Service Commission. There’s a political trail behind the KPSC’s choice to lead its internal probe against him, records investigated by The Indian Express show.

The probe panel chief Shakuntala Dundigoudar, a former school teacher, was appointed as KPSC member in 2023, days before her husband rejoined the BJP after a separation — and weeks after a reforms panel recommended reducing the KPSC’s size and appointing only full professors when picking members from academia.

Shakuntala was also a director and shareholder in a construction company owned by her husband, Shrikant Dundigoudar, a PWD contractor linked to a slew of government contracts, according to available records. They are residents of Shiggaon in Haveri district, the former Assembly constituency of ex-CM and BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai.

The KPSC picked Shakuntala to head its four-member committee to investigate the allegations against Sahukar on July 25, a day after police registered an FIR over alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 400 veterinary officers during his watch. The KPSC dissolved the panel after the Congress government transferred the police investigation to the CID on July 28, ignoring the BJP’s call for a CBI probe.

In 2023, Shakuntala’s appointment to the KPSC itself had raised eyebrows within the official establishment.

The Karnataka Public Service Commission (Conditions of Service) Regulations, 1957 originally provided for a chairperson and nine members. The sanctioned strength was subsequently expanded to a chairperson and 13 members — 14 in all.

Article 316 of the Constitution requires that, “as nearly as may be”, half the members of a Public Service Commission should have held government office for at least 10 years. The rest are classified as “non-official” members with no specific educational or professional qualifications prescribed.

On February 3, 2023, the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-II recommended that the KPSC’s total strength, including its chairperson, be reduced from 14 to eight. It noted that Maharashtra and West Bengal had three-member commissions and that, apart from Kerala, no other state at the time had more than eight members

The report also proposed qualifications for candidates drawn from different professional fields. For an academic appointee, it suggested at least 10 years’ experience as a full professor.

“By the end of February, CM Bommai issued an internal note to appoint Shakuntala. When it was informed that there was no vacancy for non-official members, he decided to increase the strength of the KPSC,” said a former member.

On March 3, 2023, four weeks after the reforms report was presented, Bommai directed the Chief Secretary to take steps to increase the KPSC’s sanctioned strength from a chairperson and 13 members to a chairperson and 15 members.

Records show the Chief Minister’s Office and the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms moved rapidly. On March 15, the government amended Regulation 3 by substituting “Fifteen” for “Thirteen”. On March 16, Shakuntala was appointed as a non-official member — the sole appointee named in the notification.

On April 7, her husband Shrikant announced on Facebook: “I joined the BJP today in support of our MLA from Shiggavi-Savanur constituency and the proud and popular Chief Minister of the state, Shri Basavaraj Bommai.” Sources said the post marked Shrikant’s return to the party after he had left in 2020 to join the Congress.

KPSC records do not state Shakuntala’s educational or professional qualifications. When contacted, she declined to comment.

Last year, hearing a case on alleged irregularities in the KPSC selection process, a Karnataka High Court bench had observed: “It bewilders any sensible man that how unqualified persons if appointed as members would be able to conduct the interview to the meritorious candidates who obviously, will be graduates if not double/post graduates in various branches of knowledge, may be with super specialization too. What impression the superior lot would gather if it is made to appear before the inferior few, needs no elaboration.”

Asked about Shakuntala’s qualification for the public service commission and its panel, KPSC interim chairman Dr B Prabhudev stated: “As per KPSC records, she holds BSc and BEd degrees and was appointed as a non-official member in recognition of her social service. She was appointed to chair the preliminary fact-finding committee based on her seniority as a member.”

Corporate filings show Shakuntala had been a director of Hubballi-registered Bannur Infrastructures Pvt Ltd since its incorporation in 2013. Her directorship ceased on March 15, 2023, the day before her KPSC appointment. The filings for 2025 record her shareholding at 10%, with her husband holding 90%.

In April 2023, Congress leaders alleged that the Bommai government had awarded contracts worth thousands of crores of rupees to his associates, naming Shakuntala’s husband Shrikant among them. Company filings show Bannur Infrastructures’ revenue rose from around Rs 25 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 65 crore in 2022-23.

Meanwhile, in unrelated proceedings decided by the Karnataka High Court in February 2025, Shrikant was described as a Class-I PWD contractor who had sought reimbursement of differential GST from 11 government respondents for works contracts he had executed.

In the run-up to the 2018 Karnataka elections, Shrikant was associated with a local grouping that opposed Bommai, then the sitting MLA from Shiggaon, according to a longtime BJP election organiser who worked in the Dharwad region.

“That was before he (Shrikant) formally joined the party (BJP) in April 2018 in the presence of (BS) Yediyurappa, and accompanied sitting MLA Bommai when he filed the nomination from Shiggaon (in 2023). He funded Bommai’s Assembly campaign, and organised and addressed political gatherings seeking vote on his behalf,” the poll organiser said.

When contacted, Shrikant said he was not in the BJP when his wife became a KPSC member but did not mention that he had rejoined the party weeks later. “The CM has all the powers to make the appointments. Maybe the considerations were to appoint a woman member and give regional representation to Haveri district. It is a false notion that Bannur Infrastructure received contracts during Bommai’s tenure as CM. We have been doing business for over 10 years and are wrongly linked with him. He has not favoured us in any contracts,” he said.

The Indian Express reached out to Bommai through emails, phone calls and messages. He was not available for comment.

According to sources, Shrikant’s political association with Bommai strengthened in the months leading up to the May 2023 Shiggaon Assembly election. But they fell out before the 2024 Shiggaon Assembly by-election, necessitated by Bommai’s election to the Lok Sabha, as Shrikant opposed the BJP’s decision to field the ex-CM’s son Bharath Bommai. Following the BJP’s defeat, the party expelled Shrikant for six years for alleged anti-party activity in November 2024. “But none of this affected (Shakuntala’s) position in the KPSC,” the former office-bearer said.

Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter focused on offshore finance, equitable growth, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. Over two decades, his work has been recognised by the International Press Institute, the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, the Asian College of Journalism etc. Expertise and Experience Mazoomdaar’s major investigations include the extirpation of tigers in Sariska, global offshore probes such as Panama Papers, Robert Vadra’s land deals in Rajasthan, India’s dubious forest cover data, Vyapam deaths in Madhya Pradesh, mega projects flouting clearance conditions, Nitin Gadkari’s link to e-rickshaws, India shifting stand on ivory ban to fly in African cheetahs, the loss of indigenous cow breeds, the hydel rush in Arunachal Pradesh, land mafias inside Corbett, the JDY financial inclusion scheme, an iron ore heist in Odisha, highways expansion through the Kanha-Pench landscape etc. ... Read More