Mumbai, Apr 30: A special court today remanded 20 persons accused in the multi-crore answer paper scam including former chairman of Maharashtra Public Service Commission S D Karnik to judicial custody till May 13. Karnik was arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau after he surrendered in keeping with a High Court directive. Seeking his remand, Anti-Corruption Bureau said they needed Karnik`s custody to find out the whereabouts of the absconding accused in the scam. Besides, ACB said it had to recover original and duplicate answer paper sheets and Rs one crore scam money from Karnik. He was an important link in the case and needed to be interrogated thoroughly. In a related development, Advocate General Goolam Vahanvati today submitted before Mumbai High Court a report on investigations in the case. The court is hearing a Public Interest Litigation and the matter is adjourned to June 13.
The Mumbai High Court had on April 25 rejected Karnik`s bail plea on the ground that he was prima facie involved in the crime.

Karnik, who was also former member of Union Public Service Commission, was released on bail by Mumbai High Court earlier. However, the state filed an appeal before Supreme Court which set aside the High Court order and asked Karnik to apply afresh for bail. Accordingly, he urged for liberty but High Court rejected his plea and asked him to surrender.

Karnik and 19 others are charged with accepting bribes for replacing answer books of 399 candidates who had appeared for written examinations conducted by MPSC in 1999 for the posts of Mantralaya assistants, sub-inspectors of police and sales tax inspectors. Bureau Report