In 72% of corruption cases since 2017, Karnataka government has not given sanctions for prosecution

In 72% of corruption cases since 2017, Karnataka government has not given sanctions for prosecution

The Karnataka government has not provided sanctions for the prosecution of government officials in 72 per cent of the 310 corruption cases registered and investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the state police over the last five years, according to data provided by the state government in the legislature recently.

Out of the 310 cases registered since 2017 by the ACB, as many as 223 cases are awaiting clearances from the state government for criminal prosecution of officials on the basis of recommendations by the ACB, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told the legislature.

The ACB police replaced the quasi-judicial Karnataka Lokayukta—after it was stripped of its police powers to investigate corruption due to internal corruption in 2015—as the main agency vested with powers to carry out investigations of corruption in the state. The ACB functions under the state government and not under retired judges like in the Lokayukta.

According to the data placed in the legislative council by Chief Minister Bommai, in as many as 248 cases or 80 per cent of the 310 cases registered against government officials by the ACB since 2017, a charge sheet has not been filed with recommendations for action having been sent to the state government in 223 or 72 per cent of cases. Data shows as many as 27 cases (nine per cent) are currently under trial in the courts, in 25 cases (eight per cent) a closure report has been filed after investigations, and in as many as 10 cases (three per cent) there has been a stay, an acquittal or quashing of investigations.

“The ACB would have registered an FIR and conducted investigations but there would be no permission for prosecution. Many cases have lapsed this way and I am calling for these records,” Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai told the legislative council recently. “There is now a practice in many departments to create an internal committee comprising secretaries and deputy secretaries. This committee examines the findings and they decide that there is something improper prima facie and they direct for exoneration of the official concerned. We are calling for all such cases,” added Bommai.

This data has emerged amid growing concerns over widespread corruption in the BJP government in Karnataka and the lack of will in the government to address the issue. There is a sense of futility in pursuing corruption cases even within the ACB due to the lack of clearance for prosecuting officials, said sources associated with the bureau. Under section 19 (1) (a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the ACB needs a prior sanction from the state government for a court to take cognizance of charges brought against a public servant for corruption under the act.

Among the cases pending government sanction for prosecution for the last five years are those against a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) chief engineer K T Nagaraj and an assistant executive engineer in the Bangalore Development Authority P D Kumar, accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income in FIRs dated February 27, 2017.

In the statement in the Karnataka legislative council, chief minister Bommai stated that these were among 248 cases still under investigation by the ACB. “I have issued specific instructions to do away with all these internal committees. It should be a direct process. If there is a recommendation by the ACB it should come to the government and we will decide about it. If there is prima facie evidence then the ACB should get automatic sanction for prosecution,” said the chief minister.

“There are a lot of vested interests and we want to end this kind of practice. In the future, if a prima facie case is made out then prosecution sanction will be given automatically,” he added.

Unofficial data from the ACB shows there are as many as 520 cases pending permission for the start of investigations of alleged corruption against government officials. The ACB rejected an RTI application for details of all cases that have come before it since its inception.

The previous Congress government under chief minister Siddaramaiah used the opportunity posed by internal corruption in the office of the former Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao, whose son was accused of running an extortion racket in the

Lokayukta, to defang the corruption investigation powers of the Lokayukta police, according to activist S R Hiremath, a central figure in highlighting the politically backed illegal mining in the state’s Bellary region between 2008-2012.

Hiremath also said that there is a sense now that the present BJP government in Karnataka that has been in power since July 2018—under B S Yediyurappa and now Bommai—has allowed the further deterioration of any efforts to control corruption in the state. There is a widespread view that corruption is rampant with no serious efforts to tackle it beyond an occasional public raid. According to sources in the Karnataka Police, an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act with the introduction of section 17 (a) (1) in 2018 mandating prior sanction from the government for even filing an FIR under the PC Act to investigate public servants for corruption has also dented efforts to battle corruption.

‘ACB is a joke’

Meanwhile, the Civil Contractors Association in Karnataka has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging demands for 40 per cent commissions by ministers and officials in the Karnataka government for the award of civic contracts in the state. There have been allegations of police and politicians receiving kickbacks from an arrested international Bitcoin hacker.

“There is a general impression that the anti-corruption mechanism has collapsed and that the ACB is a joke,” said the private secretary to a senior minister in the Karnataka government.

“The ACB has not registered a single case against any senior government official, MLA, or minister for corruption since it came into existence. The anti-corruption police worked more effectively when it was under the purview of the Lokayukta,” said former Karnataka Lokayukta and retired Supreme Court judge N Santhosh Hegde.

“How many people have been convicted in cases of corruption taken up by the ACB? How much money linked to corruption has been recovered? The government should provide these details. The raids are an eyewash. There are allegations of corruption of over Rs 500 crore in the BBMP – what has been done? Have they suspended officials under probe? They are being reinstated,” the former CM and opposition JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy said.

“The ACB has been created by design, deliberately and wilfully not to be accountable and transparent to the public. The Lokayukta was downgraded to create the ACB by the former CM Siddaramaiah’s government. Whatever hope we had earlier to battle corruption has diminished immensely,” said activist Hiremath.

The Karnataka Lokayukta police under the watch of Justice Hegde (2006-2011) moved from tackling misgovernance and corruption at the bottom of the government pyramid to acting against MLAs and ministers. The arrest of several top leaders on charges of corruption, and the public protests for a strong Lokpal Bill, made politicians in Karnataka increasingly uncomfortable with the police powers vested with the Lokayukta.

The Congress government, which came to power in 2013, worked to make the anti-corruption apparatus in Karnataka more amenable to the influence of the state government and the corruption within the Lokayukta itself that was exposed in 2015 provided the opportunity. Source:indianexpress