Slow probe, shoddy charges help accused

Jaipur: A year after solving high-profile corruption cases involving top bureaucrats, Rajasthan’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) is now dragging its feet through the probe. A slow pace of inquiry coupled with “shoddy” chargesheet filed by the ACB in some cases helped the accused get bail from the court.

There are at least seven such cases that won the ACB accolades for laying hands on IAS, IPS officers and even a former minister, but the swiftness with which it arrested senior officials and filed chargesheet against them is now missing in the investigation. After the arrests of top-level officials, the ACB hastily submitted chargesheet in some cases but sought time to investigate some key aspects. Neither the supplement chargesheet was submitted nor it made any progress in the probe. In fact, the investigation officers (IO) have reportedly not even bothered to open the files.

Interestingly, the change in the ACB’s attitude was visible only after senior officials, who went after senior IAS officers, were shifted out of it. In a strange move though, chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who earlier have the ACB free hand to act against corruption in high places of the government, transferred ACB chief Bhupendra Dak and IG (ACB) M.N. Dinesh, instrumental in bringing to book two IAS officers and other senior bureaucrats on graft charges.

Cases hanging since 201:
NRHM scam

• IAS Neeraj K. Pawan, five others held in May 2016; chargesheet was filed but no further progress

Mining racket

• Principal secretary Ashok Singhvi arrested in September 2015; supplementary chargesheet is pending

Single land deed

• IAS G.S. Sandhu, JDA secy Nishkam Diwakar held; IAS N.L. Meena, Shanti Dhariwal named in Sept. 2015; two chargesheets filed without complete probe; Diwakar out on bail

Spurious Ghee case

• Several cops accused for being hand in gloves with the ‘mastermind’, Dinesh Singhal; three years on but the investigation is still not complete