NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
The Anti-Corruption Bureau in Andhra Pradesh plans to go the Tehelka way, using miniature cameras, micro recorders and other hi-tech gadgets to catch corrupt officials.
ACB Director-General A K Mohanty said on Thursday that the gadgetry would come in handy since the corrupt, too, had become discreet in pursuing their "money-making" practices.
The state forensic laboratory would help the ACB in conducting lie detector tests on tainted officials.
The ACB would also request the special courts to appoint receivers for properties unearthed during search operations.
Mohanty claimed that the ACB had achieved "spectacular" successes this year. Since January, assets worth Rs 240 million were seized from 31 corrupt officials. It was a record in the agency's history, he added.
Admitting that the ACB was hamstrung owing to protracted delays in trial of cases, he said that the five special courts and one tribunal set up to try only ACB cases were not able to cope up with the workload, as they were trying non-ACB cases also. While 650 ACB cases were pending in these courts, the number of non-ACB cases was over 4,300.
The government would soon move the high court with a request to withdraw all the non-ACB cases from these special courts. "Thanks to the delays in trials, the cases are not serving as a deterrent to the corrupt," Mohanty said.
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