In last 8 years, 104 Delhi govt officials held by ACB over graft charges

Despite challans or chargesheets filed in courts in 144 instances during the period, conviction was secured in only 32, or a little over 30%, of the cases.

In addition to the 101 officials from over 20 Delhi government departments who were arrested from 2015 to 2022, three arrests were made by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) this year — of two Transport department personnel and one from the MCD — taking the total number of arrests to 104.

A senior government official said that these numbers only relate to officials who fall under the jurisdiction of the ACB. Action against officials posted in central government departments or at senior levels of the civil service like DANICS and IAS officers in cases of alleged corruption is taken by central investigation agencies such as CBI.

According to the RTI, at 23, the DJB accounted for the highest number of Delhi government officials being arrested during the period, followed by the revenue department and MCD — with 18 each.

Asked about the reasons behind the low conviction rate, sources pointed to factors ranging from the protracted nature of Prevention of Corruption Act cases to “ineffective prosecutors” arguing the case on behalf of the anti-graft body.

“Sometimes investigation is marred by lack of prosecution sanction from… the government department concerned in time. In many cases, documentation which is part of the evidence goes missing or is destroyed; witnesses turn hostile or relocate by the time the case comes up for trial,” a senior official claimed.

“Despite these issues, the ACB saw the successful conviction of seven accused — which is the highest during the period — in 2022; the conviction has been secured in two cases this year already,” the official further said.

As per departmental records submitted by the anti-graft body to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena last month, investigation in 169 graft complaints against Delhi government officials was found to be pending at various stages.

While the ACB had recorded a slight reduction in the total pendency — down to 169 till the end of March this year from 178 in late August 2022 — seven instances in which the investigation has been pending for over 20 years had also come to light.

In 107 of these “legacy complaints”, the investigation was yet to be completed.

“We have taken various steps to make the anti-graft mechanism in the city more robust… for instance, the corruption complaints are directly relayed to our control room from the Delhi Police as soon as these are logged on 112,” said Madhur Verma, the joint commissioner of police and head of the Delhi ACB.

“A round-the-clock control room, manned by investigation officers to look into graft complaints, is in the final stages of being established. We are implementing blockchain technology to maintain the integrity of files and documentation related to evidence and are targeting the processing of all legacy cases latest until the end of June,” he added.