Over the last few years, the Anti Corruption Bureau has been focusing on bribery and less on Disproportionate Assets (DA) cases. While cases of bribery are on the rise, DA cases seem to be on the decline after touching a high of 72 cases in 2018.
Data – procured through an RTI query by Dr. K. Shivaram – show that the ACB registered only 19 DA cases in 2019, and 18 the following year. DA cases are a better option against corrupt officials, as they evaluate their assets versus their legal income, taking a larger view of the official’s career, whereas bribery cases pertain to specific instances.
Since its inception around five years ago, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has registered a total of 1,445 cases of which only three have ended in convictions. While this poor track record has come under criticism, senior ACB officials said that being a new organisation, it was expected that the convictions would be low, given the long duration of trials.
“Moreover, the entire 2020 did not see regular court hearings further delaying trials,” said an ACB official.
