The Odisha Vigilance has seemingly hit the jackpot in 2015 by making a seizure of a whopping Rs 34, 577 crore of ill-gotten assets from corrupt babus and karamcharis vis-a-vis a mere Rs 29 crore in 2014. This revelation has to come to fore in the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) recently released report.
However, what makes the State Vigilance merrily fishing big this time is indulgent sarkari babus who hardly would go for some serious re-thinking before plundering the public money as the chances of convictions are only 50:50.
Sample this: When Odisha ranked 3 in number of cases filed under Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) in the country last year, it slipped to 5th nationally with a conviction rate of mere 47.6 per cent. When around 86 cases resulted in acquittal, only 78 resulted in conviction. If this is the case and amount on offer for looting is so staggering, then indulgent babus would hardly blink twice.
Significantly, the reason which emboldens corrupt officials in Odisha to loot and scoot is poor charge-sheeting rate (means number of cases in which charge-sheet is filed after thorough investigation by Vigilance) of meagre 34.8 per cent and Odisha has not even figured in the top -10 States in the country in this vital indicator. Odisha languishes at 12th in the country. Interesting to mention here is the conviction rate in Odisha in the all-important cases of ‘Disproportionate Assets’ (DA), purportedly against the big fishes, during the decade has touched a new low.
According to a senior Vigilance official, poor charge-sheeting rate indicates the vulnerability of prolonged or say delayed investigation that in a way lends a rope to the accused (who are generally influential in power corridors) to tamper with and manage itself wriggle out of the PCA mess with a clean slate.
This fact would definitely make one to ponder over when in Odisha during the last decade nearly a hundred of PCA cases were abated due to death of the accused, which shows how extra-long time a PCA case takes in Odisha to reach to its logical conclusion.
Moreover, lighter punishments in most convicted cases with sentences ranging from imprisonment of 1 to 3 years and fines ranging from mere Rs 4,000 to Rs 1 lakh hardly act as any deterrence for the corrupt.
In order to have a real fight against corruption, experts observe that there is a need to mandate a fixed time-frame for the investigating officer to complete the investigation, and to ensure a real-time trial the number of courts needed to be linked to the fresh charge sheets filed by the department, which is not the case now, they added.
Why a corrupt one would fear law when data with the Vigilance shows during the period 2001-2015, the department charge sheeted over 1,400 trap cases for trial, but a handful of over 350 were only convicted. If such would be the outcome in trap cases, often known as open- and- shut cases, then corruption cases in Odisha would remain high, they remark and add that an independent lokpal with investigative powers could unleash fear among crooks. But, alas, it is not the reality in Odisha.