Property registration, police, panchayat samiti: Govt depts with highest anti-corruption traps in 2025
As per data, from January 1 to November 11 this year, 155 officers from the Revenue, Land Records, and Registration departments were allegedly caught red-handed accepting bribes in various traps laid by the ACB.
Even as the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), in a rare instance, named a judge an accused in a bribery case earlier this week, the latest ACB data revealed that the highest number of anti-corruption traps where officials are caught red handed accepting bribes are in departments related to property registration, followed by the police and the panchayat samiti.
As per data, from January 1 to November 11 this year, 155 officers from the Revenue, Land Records, and Registration departments were allegedly caught red-handed accepting bribes in various traps laid by the ACB. An official that these departments were clubbed together as they are all related to property registration in some way.
“Several people are unwilling to pay money to get their properties registered, which in some offices has become the norm. Hence, we have a majority of corruption cases from these departments,” said an official. Of the 155 officers, a majority (136) are non-gazetted mid-level government employees falling under Class III category, while seven of them are gazetted Class 1 officers that form the top layer of administration in these departments.
The police department came second with 105 officials being booked in corruption cases. “Here, in several cases, money is demanded for going easy in a particular case or taking action against someone,” said the official. Of them, 99 are Class III officers, while four are Class I officers.
Panchayat Samiti, with 60 officers getting trapped while accepting bribes, came third, followed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company with 41 of its officers caught red-handed.
An ACB officer said usually departments like revenue, land records, and police have constant interactions with a large number of people and hence they figured in the list, as against other departments that have interactions with only a limited set of people, like contractors.
“In terms of revenue, land records and police, these are citizen-facing departments and are frequented by citizens which provides corrupt officials a chance to demand money to get their work done. There is increased vigilance among people who, instead of getting arm-twisted, approach ACB, following which traps are carried out,” said the ACB officer.
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The Mumbai ACB named a serving additional sessions judge as a wanted accused in a corruption case on Tuesday, hours after arresting his clerk-cum-typist, who was allegedly caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh at a coffee shop. The alleged bribe was in lieu of passing a judgment favourable to a party that had approached the civil court to seek redressal of a dispute regarding a plot of land valued at around Rs 10 crore. Prior to that, it had named a Satara-based judge as an accused in December who was dismissed from service last month.
Mohamed Thaver is a highly specialized journalist with the Expertise and Authority required to report on complex law enforcement and legal issues. With a career dedicated to the crime beat for over a decade, his work provides readers with informed and trustworthy insights into Maharashtra's security and justice systems.
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