ACB cannot check graft for lack of funds, HC told
Agency’s practice of seeking ‘trap money’ from complainants a deterrent in fighting corruption: PIL……..Mayura Janwalkar
A PIL filed in the Bombay High Court may perhaps make the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) richer. Filed by former scribe Ketan Tirodkar, the PIL has urged the court to direct the state government to allocate more funds to the ACB to enable it to lay traps and intercept those seeking bribe.
As per Tirodkar’s PIL, when a complainant approaches the ACB, he is asked to provide the amount that an official has sought. For example, if a government official has asked someone for Rs25,000 in bribe, it is the complainant who has to provide the amount to the ACB so that the officer can be caught red-handed. If the complainant cannot provide the amount, the PIL contends, the ACB does not act.
To lay the trap, the ACB asks the complainant to provide the currency. The ACB covers the notes in anthracin powder so as to get the culprits finger-prints on it. The notes are then confiscated and become a part of the evidence in the case. However, Tirodkar has contended that if this amount is provided by the ACB itself, then more complainants would come forward to report corruption.
Hearing the case on Wednesday, Justice JN Patel and Justice KK Tated remarked that when the complainant provides for the amount himself, he stands to get it back only after the trial in the case, the duration if which is uncertain, is concluded. The judges, however, asked Tirodkar to amend his petition and incorporate more respondents in the case.
Tirodkar, who is currently in prison, was arrested in 2004 and is facing charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for his association with gangster Chhota Shakeel in an extortion case.