Government shield allows corrupt babus to flourish, law can’t touch them

HYDERABAD: Telangana government has taken shielding officials facing corruption allegations to the next level, dropping charges or even paying interest for delayed emoluments.


An excise superintendent, K Narasimha Reddy, was booked for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income (DA case). Instead of initiating action, the government not only dropped charges against him, but treated his suspension period as ‘On Duty’. Also, he was paid interest on the 'delayed payment of emoluments'.

In another case, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director-general strongly objected to the government’s denial of prosecution. However, the government indirectly reprimanded the top cop not to raise objections and issued directions to transfer the case to the tribunal for disciplinary proceedings instead of criminal prosecution.

These startling revelations came to light in an RTI petition filed by Forum for

Good Governance

.

M Padmanabha Reddy

, a former IFS official and secretary of FGG, told TOI, “ACB after registering cases of corruption against government employees, seek permission to prosecute the accused officers.After dragging the case for a few years, the accused officer is let off with minor punishment. ”


Narasimha Reddy, a former prohibition and excise

superintendent of Nizamabad

, was suspended on April 28 in 2008. After six years, the revenue department issued a GO in 2014 dropping further action.


“As if dropping charges is not enough, the suspension period was treated as ‘On Duty’, and for the delayed payment of his emoluments, an interest of Rs 5,483 was paid to the officer. This is a classic example of how the administration is dealing with corruption-related cases,” Padmanabha Reddy alleged.

“Adilabad District Industries Centre general manager

KP Krishna

and another employee

B Prithvi Raj

were caught by ACB officials in 2015 for accepting Rs 30,000 for a favour. Later, they were suspended. Krishna was allotted to AP.

DGP ACB, while submitting his report, has stated that the evidence available on record is sufficient to substantiate the case and requested permission to prosecute accused. The government did not agree, instead entrusted it to the tribunal for disciplinary proceedings,” Reddy added.