Speed money is a concept over which law enforcers and revenue officials in the state seem to be permanently locked in competition to prove who has the better grasp of it.
Lately the top honours have been going to the police, who statistics available with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) show beat all other departments to the top of last year’s corruption cases chart. In 2007 as well, the police had beaten the Revenue Department at the game.
A total of 88 cases were registered against police officials of different ranks from January to November in 2008. The number of arrests from the police department in the same period stood at 126.
The Revenue Department, long in the habit of taking the top position in the annual chart prepared by the ACB, slipped to number two. The total number of cases registered against revenue officials was 82, the arrests figure stood at 107.
“The rate of complaints coming to ACB pertaining to demand of bribe against police and Revenue Department is higher compared to other departments,” Additional Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters), ACB, Sanjay Parande said.
{{/usCountry}}“The rate of complaints coming to ACB pertaining to demand of bribe against police and Revenue Department is higher compared to other departments,” Additional Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters), ACB, Sanjay Parande said.
{{/usCountry}}In 2008, the ACB caught 502 people from various government departments and lodged 346 cases.
Director General (ACB) S. Chakravarty had a theory for why the police and Revenue Department were so far ahead — the high level of public interaction.
It was mostly the common man who interacted with these departments, he said. Finding himself cornered by greedy officials, he would resort to corruption.