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Karnataka IAS officer traced to hometown in UP
Times of India··23 Aug
On 22 August 2026, Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge said IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar, reported incommunicado since 20 August, had reached his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. Kharge said the 2016-batch officer, now Director of MSME, left Bengaluru in a hurry after a family emergency, was not reachable on his official phone, and later told the government he was safe.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you work with the MSME directorate in Karnataka, the minister's account is that the director is in Uttar Pradesh on a week's leave request, not missing.
- Anyone who saw morning reports of a vanished officer should note Kharge later said he had spoken to Gangwar and that the official phone was off while he travelled.
- If you follow the KPSC veterinary exam case, the minister said this trip is not part of the ED search file.
What's Happening
- Saturday began with Kharge saying there was no family complaint and that the last trace was the Bengaluru airport. By evening he said contact had been made.
- The leave note, as read out, asked for a week for unavoidable circumstances and was not processed because offices were thin on a festival day.
- Cabinet had recently advised the governor to suspend KPSC chair Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar on a separate corruption file, which is why the silence drew notice.
Why An Airport Exit Became A Missing Alert
- Gangwar is a 2016-batch IAS officer, not a KPSC member at present. His last KPSC post ended in March.
- The ED searches named KPSC premises, chairman Sahukar and member Shanta Hosmani in a money-laundering inquiry into the veterinary officer exam.
- Kharge said the officer also had a personal phone but could not be reached while travelling, which is the gap that produced the incommunicado label.
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