In state,only Mumbai has courts to tackle graft…….Prafulla Marpakwar
Mumbai: A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi called for the fast-tracking of corruption cases against public servants and politicians,it was found that 2,092 cases registered between 1986 and 2010 under the Prevention of Corruption Act are pending before courts across Maharashtra.
As per official records of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB),the maximum number of cases is pending in Nagpur division (388),followed by Pune (322),Nashik (299),Thane (273),Amravati (269),Aurangabad (221),Mumbai (211),and Nanded (109).While 450 to 500 cases are registered every year,Maharashtra has witnessed the lowest conviction rate of 26 to 30%,against 50 to 60% a decade back.
A senior ACB official attributed the pendency of cases to the acute shortage of special courts,hostile complainants and witnesses,and above all the huge time lost in securing permission from the state government to launch criminal proceedings against a public servant or a politician.
In Maharashtra,only Mumbai has designated courts to tackle cases under the Act,while elsewhere,regular sessions courts hear such cases.After an offence is registered against a public servant,the ACB obtains permission from the state government.Often,as it takes more than a year for the government to grant sanction,there is huge delay in launching criminal proceedings, he said,adding that the ACB had booked a minister,Babanrao Gholap (1999),IPS officers A K Jain (2000) and Rahul Gopal (2003),and a bureaucrat in 2003.Cases where top officials are trapped are simple as we only submit a report to the court.But the ACB has to be careful in cases involving disproportionate assets.Investigations take long as we have to establish that the assets are disproportionate to the officials known sources of income.
Former director-general of police Arvind Inamdar welcomed Sonias proposal,saying that if she was serious,the UPA government should initiate steps to grant complete autonomy to the ACB and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
I welcome her move,but I feel the ACB and the CBI should be free from the governments clutches.They should be like the Election Commission, Inamdar told TOI.
As an ACB director-general in 1996,Inamdar had submitted a white paper on improving the bureaus performance.The time between registering an offence and pronouncement of a verdict should be minimal.At the moment,it appears that once an offence is registered,it takes long before the case comes up before a court.In the meantime,the accused gets an opportunity to threaten the complainant and witnesses, Inamdar said.
He said that in view of Sonia and PM Manmohan Singhs concern over rampant corruption,the state government should set up special courts in every district to tackle cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Centre should amend the Act to provide for the time-bound disposal of cases.Since there is a time limit of 180 days to file a chargesheet,for the delivery of a verdict too,the apex court should fix a time limit, Inamdar said.
He came down heavily on the delay in granting sanction to launch criminal prosecution as per Section 197 of the CrPC.In some cases,it took two years for the government to take a decision.Either it should be done away with,or the government should set up a three-member committee to take quick decisions, he said.