Chargesheet on hold in 20% graft cases in Maharashtra as ACB awaits approvals

AN ASSISTANT Police Inspector at Dongri police station was arrested on January 28, 2022 for allegedly demanding a Rs 18,000 bribe to not take legal action against a person involved in a matka (gambling) racket. The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) found evidence against him and sought a prosecution sanction from the Mumbai Police Commissioner. Nine reminder letters and two years later, the chargesheet has not been filed as the agency has not received a sanction from the Mumbai Police Commissioner.

An investigation of ACB records by The Indian Express revealed that the bureau has been waiting since 2019 for the Maharashtra government/government departments to provide sanctions to prosecute government officers in 476 cases. In another 81 cases, the departments rejected the approval sought by the ACB. A total of 3,013 cases were sent by the ACB to the department concerned over the last five years to obtain approvals and nearly one out of every five cases have either been rejected or still await approvals.

Despite section 19A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act mandating that a decision on a prosecution sanction must be made within a period of 90 days, the delay in 279 of the cases pending approval range between three months and several years. As of March 18, no approval has been received in the last 90 days in 197 pending cases.

Of the total 476 cases ,363 have been pending before their own departments, while 113 have been pending before the government.

According to section 19(A) of the PC Act, the government can notfile a charge sheet against a government official without obtaining a sanction from the concerned department. Section 19 (A) of the PC Act was meant to act as a safeguard for public servants from frivolous complaints targeting them by motivated individuals while discharging their official duty. Section 19(A) is different from 17 (A), which was added later and deals with seeking permission for even starting an enquiry.

As per the data, the highest number of cases pending approvals relate to the Revenue department. While requests have been sent for cases pertaining to 107 officials ,87 are pending before the department and another 20 are pending with the government.

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