Former chairman of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission and prime accused in the multi-crore answer paper scam S D Karnik was on Saturday arrested by the anti-corruption bureau after he surrendered in keeping with a Bombay high court directive.

The court had on Friday rejected his bail plea on the ground that he was prima facie involved in the crime.

The court had earlier released Karnik. However, the state appealed to the Supreme Court, which set aside the high court release order and asked Karnik to apply fresh for bail.

Karnik applied for bail, but this time the high court rejected his plea and asked him to surrender.

Karnik and 18 others are charged with accepting bribes for replacing answer books of 399 candidates who had appeared for the written examinations conducted by MPSC in 1999 for the post of Mantralaya assistants and sub-inspectors of police.