Catching crooks

Parents are often pressurised by their children to supply them with things beyond their reach. Also there is a tremendous sense of insecurity amongst us. We don8217;t know what the future holds in store and to ensure this security, people become corrupt.

What are different ways in which corruption is practised by government employees?
Corruption is practiced at various levels, its manifestations different in the case of small fry and the big bosses.

One is a direct demand for money, which the head of a department will never do. He may employ the services of his subordinates. Then there is an indirect demand like that of a traffic cop. By resorting to harassment 8211; asking you to come to court and so on, he gets people to cough up money.

Some employees work through agents. For example, if you have to get your driver8217;s licence, getting it through an agent could be infinitely easier than doing it the straight way. Often, these agents and officials share the spoils. Then there are some people like bootleggers or contractors who willingly pay the government officials. This is the result of mutual consent. And lastly there is what we call the misuse of power. A person may not directly take money, but misuse his position to gain favours. For example, an official who has to invite tenders does not advertise properly, so that only a select group of contractors are benefited.

What does your work involve?
We are concerned with getting proof of the official8217;s corruption, employing different methods. For the junior officers, we lay a trap to catch them red-handed. Often this person is asked to meet with the complainant at a fixed spot. Then we get our panchs witnesses ready. There is quite a bit of drama in these exercises.

But people these days are aware of these panchs and often insist on coming alone. In a school donation case, the official insisted that there should be no one in the house when he came home to collect the cash. The complainant was a goldsmith and we placed our panch in his house, pretending to be the wife. Just before handing over the money, this man called out casually to his wife8217; who came into the room with the tea and witnessed the bribe being taken. The official did not suspect anything and was nabbed.

Before laying the trap, we have to coat the notes with anthracin powder, which is not visible to the naked eye, but can be detected under ultra-violet light.

Once in Ichalkaranji, there was this municipal clerk who was caught taking Rs 400 as bribe. When confronted, he just swallowed the money! There were some traces of anthracin on his lips, but the officers took him to Kolhapur and gave him a stomach wash. Unfortunately two hours had passed and the notes had been digested. One of my men suggested we wait till the next day. His stools were examined and the proof we were looking for was found!

For higher officials we cannot lay traps, as most often they are not involved directly in the act of crime. But the Prevention of Corruption Act states that any government official having assets not proportionate to his income, and who cannot satisfactorily explain the source, is presumed to be corrupt. That helps us and we keep an eye on this aspect.

What has been the success of your department?
We are doing some good work. Three years back this department used to handle 20 cases a year, but now we have about 60. Yet, I feel that corruption cannot be curbed by exposing two or three cases in a department. By doing that, we only provide a clue to the higher-ups about what8217;s happening there. They should look into the matter and should be answerable if their people are corrupt, only then can we weed out this menace from our lives.