Maharashtra ACB books 1,764 cops in bribery cases while conviction secured for 177
14 Apr, 2015The police and revenue departments usually have the dubious distinction of topping the list of cases booked by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of any state. Reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that during the last 15 years (between 2000 and 2014), the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Maharashtra trapped as many as 1,764 police officials and constabulary from the state police department. It amounts to booking of one cop in a corruption case at an average every month during the past 15 years. As per the reply, only 177 have been convicted out of the above while 573 have been acquitted and 734 are pending in courts. The remaining cases either did not reach the court due to lack of evidence or are under investigation or are awaiting sanction for prosecution from the concerned government department.
The reply further shows that 1,594 officials from the revenue department have been trapped for accepting bribes, out of which 609 accused have been acquitted, while 692 cases are pending in courts.
Delay in the matter reaching the court is said to be the prime reason for the low rate of conviction. The long pendency of cases in the courts is said to lead to delay in the case coming up for hearing. Of the cases which have completed trial, the conviction rate of revenue department is 26 per cent while that for the police it is 23.3 per cent which appears to be similar indicating that the investigation of all the departments is impartial and without departmental bias.