300 corrupt officials could face speedy prosecution

The Anna Hazare Lokpal panel will tighten its noose around corrupt officials.

The Anna Hazare effect on the Lokpal Bill is going to have its impact on 300 corruption tainted government officials who could now face immediate prosecution in a court.

This is following Saturday's meeting of the Lokpal Bill joint committee which promised to revisit the Prevention of Corruption Act to do away with the clause which requires investigating agencies to seek sanctions from the government before chargesheeting corrupt officials.

There are as many as 300 government officials for whom prosecution sanctions are pending with the government as on March 31 2011, as per the latest list available with Mail Today. Of these officials, around 100 are among the elite Group A officers. All 300 officials were booked by the CBI for corruption and a request to prosecute them was sought from the government.

The government says it agrees that investigating agencies must be allowed to act independently in corruption cases.

The "shield" for corrupt officers by way of prosecution sanctions has been much criticised.

Both the central and state governments have delayed giving these sanctions or even refused sanctions to prosecute in certain cases.

In fact, sanction requests for nearly half of these officials are now pending with the government for over four months, the time limit mandated by the Supreme Court for the government to decide on a prosecution sanction request.

This gives credence to the argument from civil activists in the committee that no senior government officer ever goes to jail for corruption. The amendment in the clause has thus been proposed so that investigations and prosecution of any officer can be initiated without a permission, investigation to be completed within one year and the trial to get over within the following year. The corrupt should go to jail within two years, the Jan Lokpal Bill says.

In the last four years, the CBI has booked 108 bureaucrats for corruption, including 19 IAS officers, six IPS officers and 35 Indian Revenue Services officers.