Babu's crafty graft business

The Lokayukta's attempts at catching corrupt officials are failing as the latter are using fronts who accept bribes on their behalf

The Lokayukta's attempts at catching corrupt officials are failing as the latter are using fronts who accept bribes on their behalf

The Lokayukta may be witnessing a drop in the number of corrupt babus caught taking bribes, but this does not spell good news. On the contrary, the reason behind this decline is that the babus have become wary and are using conduits who accept the money on their behalf. For the Lokayukta, this is a grave cause for concern as the traps they have been laying of late have not proved successful to a large extent.


Under the table: The most-favored method used by officers in
Sub-registrar office and RTO departments, is deploying a non-government
official as agents.Representation pic

With Lokayukta officials up in arms against corrupt officials, these officials, in turn, have adapted to other 'strategies' to counter such attempts. The most-favored method used by officers in Sub-registrar office and RTO departments, is deploying a non-government official as agents. This is a major setback for Lokayukta investigators.

Hide-and-seek
"Because of lack of manpower, it is difficult for us to keep an eye on everyone taking bribe on behalf of the official," a senior officer heading the investigations said. Lokayukta investigators conducted around 281 traps in 2010, compared with previous year's 309. According to officials, most of the traps conducted at various check posts across the state were a major failure, because the person attested by the anti-graft department got away easily.

Sometimes, the government official does not ask for the bribe directly. "In such cases, we have to record the conversation between his agent, who speaks on behalf of the officer and complainant. But, that also does not help us, since we don't have any direct proof against the suspect," the official said.

Novel methods
The department has also observed bribe transactions in the form of ATM cards, blank cheques and expensive gifts. "Giving blank cheques through an unknown person also reduces the chances of laying a trap," he added.

The officer added that though bribing in the form of gifts is punishable under section 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, it is one of the commonly used tactics.

"The officer would ask the complainant for a specific gift from a specific shop.u00a0 The officer returns the gift later, and gets the cash. If at all we trap him while taking the gift item, the shop owner in turn would deny the fact that somebody else has paid for the item," said an officer, recalling a recent incident.

The Other Side

'u00a0u00a0Conduits like touts, shop keepers and even parking lot attendants ' Distant relatives of the corrupt babus 'u00a0 Malls and showrooms 'u00a0u00a0Credit and Debit cards to use online transactions