ACB a conspiracy by politicians to save their skin: Panel

A panel of eminent persons on Wednesday termed the creation of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) by diluting the powers of Lokayukta police as a conspiracy by politicians to save their skin. 

Freedom fighter  H S Doreswamy, former Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde, retired High Court judge Justice M F Saldanha, retired bureaucrats V Balasubramaniam, T R Raghunandan, former Vigilance Commissioner R Sri Kumar and social activist S R Hiremath, condemned the State government’s move of creating ACB under the control of politicians. The panel discussion on “ACB or Lokayukta..what do the people want”, was organised by the Aam Aadmi Party.

Former Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde said that the chief minister had justified the move by saying that the ACB exists in 12 other states. The people must ask him whether he has considered the statistics about cases booked by these ACBs in other states. The Lokayukta police wing is one of the best anti-corruption wings in the country, he noted. 

“Yes, there was a bad phase because of a judge with poor track record heading the institution. Going by that justification, we have had chief ministers who faced allegations and some allegations were proved as well. Shall we have a government without a chief minister then?. I have no doubt the State government is trying to abolish the institute of Lokayukta,” Justice Hegde said.

Former IAS officer T R Raghunandan said that the State was passing through a ‘hyper corruption’ phase which needs a powerful and independent Lokayukta. “There has to be a war against corruption and the 1998 Supreme Court order which the government is quoting, in fact, speaks about strengthening the Lokayukta. We need to take the case history from various countries which have implemented independent ombudsman.” 

Former Director General of Police Sri Kumar said that the system to combat corruption should move at the same pace with which corruption is spreading. “We have an in-built mechanism to delay the procedure. We did a study in CBI wherein cases registered in five years were taken into consideration. In 839 FIRs registered in five years, only 50% could be charge-sheeted and after prolonged stages of trial and appeal only 3.9% of cases ended in conviction.”

On a question about role of bureaucrats, Balasubramaniam said corruption had become the system and not part of the system. “I have the experience of how ACB under the State government functions. At that time, three officials, including two IAS officers, were supposed to be raided for disproportionate assets. A good person was the chief minister then and he accorded permission. However, within a few days the situation turned and he was asked to step down by the prime minister from the airport. The next chief minister turned down the request and one of the IAS officers went on to become the chief secretary,” he added.