Graft cases stuck in probe process

Landscams involve babus in TS, AP

With the surfacing of the Miyapur land scam and its incriminating spinoffs that exposed the complicity of the subregistrars, the Telangana state government decided to tighten the checks on corruption even further. A hard crackdown on corrupt bureaucrats of the state is on the anvil. The ACB and other enforcement agencies have been quite vigilant in nabbing corrupt bureaucrats but the cases generally linger on as the investigation process is often jerky or stalled midway on some pretext or the other.

As per available data, in Andhra Pradesh, investigation of as many as 284 cases out of the 500 cases filed, are still pending, while in Telangana, 206 cases out of 400 cases are still under investigation. The data shows that probe officials from AP have not filed charge sheets in 113 cases even after the prescribed deadline, while ACB and vigilance officials of Telangana have not filed charge sheets in over 160 cases.

An analysis of the data proves that despite being special agencies which deal with high profile cases, the two agencies, ACB and Vigilance Department, go slow. This despite the fact that they have access to a number of resources.

Higher officials from Telangana and AP disagree with this deduction and claim that ACB and Vigilance Department have more convictions of suspects than the CID and state police.

“The ACB’s conviction rate is more than 50 per cent each year. Investigations remain pending due to factors like delay in seizure of evidences and delay in witness procurement. Chargesheets are therefore not filed on time,” said a senior official from ACB Telangana.

The officials also denied any sort of external or political influence hindering the process of ACB cases in the state. “ACB is independent as compared to other enforcement agencies. The investigation officials cannot be easily influenced by external factors. Also we have to show maximum transparency in our task since we primarily fight corruption,” claimed another officer.

With the state government’s current stance, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Vigilance Department are hopeful about resolving cases sooner than later.