Maharashtra Police most corrupt, assets worth Rs 4 crore amassed by cops, says ACB
An ACB official posted in Mumbai, said, “Most complaints are received against these two departments. This is because these two departments interact with the public more and have huge manpower as well.”
The Maharashtra Police department has the most corruption complaints against it among 44 state government departments in the bribery list released for 2019 by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB). This is for the first time after 2013 that the department earned the dubious distinction of making it to the top of the bribery list.
The revenue department is second in ACB’s bribery list. The bribery complaints against the department were the second-highest since 2014.
An ACB official posted in Mumbai, said, “Most complaints are received against these two departments. This is because these two departments interact with the public more and have huge manpower as well.”
In 2019, 892 corruption-related cases were registered by the ACB, in which 1,241 persons were arrested.
Of these, 867 were graft cases in which government servants were caught taking bribes to either discharge their official duties or not take action. The remaining 20 cases were of amassing disproportionate assets and criminal misconduct in the discharge of official duty.
While the Mumbai ACB range registered only 43 cases, 187 (maximum) cases were registered by the Pune ACB range. Other ACB divisions like Thane, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, and Aurangabad registered 100 odd cases each, and Nanded registered 80 cases.
The corruption bureau has registered 194 cases against the police department and arrested 269 corrupt personnel.
Additionally, the revenue department, in second place on the list, has 190 cases registered against its officials and employees and 259 individuals from the department have been arrested in these cases.
Third on the list are local bodies – panchayat samitis with 90 cases; Maharashtra State Electric Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and municipalities with 47 cases each.
While the total bribe amount seized from police department personnel stood at ₹54.80 lakh, the amount seized from arrested revenue department employees stood at ₹34.83 lakh. ACB seized a total of ₹1.83 crore from purportedly corrupt government employees in 2019.
The bribe money seized from employees of panchayat samitis and municipalities stood at ₹9.95 lakh and ₹3.35 lakh, respectively, whereas ₹4.46 lakh was recovered from MSEDCL employees.
Ranking of 12 departments with the most cases of disproportionate assets was also topped by the police department.
Of the 20 cases in this list, four were registered against 10 police officers and disproportionate assets worth ₹4 crore were found to be amassed by them.
Three cases were registered against seven public works department (PWD) officials accused of amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of ₹21.48 lakh.