Corrupt babus cut deals after office hours

A study by the Pune Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has revealed that many government officials prefer rendezvous outside the office, especially during the late hours of night, in a bid to avoid getting trapped while accepting bribes.

Consider this – the Pune unit of ACB has laid 78 successful traps in the last eight and a half months, out of which there were 20 such occasions where the corrupt government officials were found accepting bribes outside their offices.

According to the ACB officials, the corrupt government officials avoid to accept bribes in their offices out of the fear that they may get caught.

“When we questioned the trapped officials, they revealed that they had studied the methodology used by us in trapping them and thus changed their modus operandi accordingly,” said deputy commissioner of police (ACB) Sarang Awad.

He added, “They prefer to hold meetings at various public places to accept bribes hoping that they can succeed amidst the hustle and bustle of the public places. Also, they had observed that the ACB officials lay most of the traps during office hours and began accepting bribes outside the office hours late in the evening or at night.”

Awad said that the ACB has also observed that in most of the cases, the corrupt government officials chose to hold such meetings at hotels and permit rooms to accept the bribes.

According to Awad, another trend noticed these days is the use of middle-men to accept bribes. “Many a times, the officers avoid talking about bribes or accepting bribes directly. They ask someone else, preferably someone from outside the office, to talk to the bribers,” he said.

He added, “They feel by doing so, we won’t be able to link the bribe money to them which is obviously a misconception. It is pertinent to note that we have already arrested 12 middlemen for their roles in different cases of bribery in our jurisdiction.”

Awad added that these corrupt officials adopt various tactics of negotiation while demanding the bribes. “Previously, the officials would quote the bribe amount and stick to it refusing to talk much. However, now, there have been several examples wherein the corrupt officials haggle with the victims over the amount of bribe for a long time, till a mutually agreed amount is worked out,” he said.