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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Huge anti-graft sweep in India Indian detectives Friday launched simultaneous raids on scores of government officials, politicians and police officers suspected of corruption, officials said. More than 2,000 detectives from the Central Bureau of Investigation, took part in the raids at 198 locations in 54 cities, CBI director Uma Shankar Misra said. Detectives raided 34 homes of bureaucrats in the capital New Delhi alone. "The objective of this drive is to target public servants of doubtful integrity in corruption-prone departments," Misra told reporters. "The focus of our attention was to detect disproportionate assets of corrupt public servants," he said. The CBI crackdown, the fourth and biggest this year, followed a pledge last year by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clean up public life by prosecuting corrupt officials. "We've registered 58 cases against 70 public servants out of which four are against officers who are of the rank of joint secretaries or above," Misra said. The officers were booked under India's tough Prevention of Corruption Act, which carries a minimum two year sentence, and on grounds of cheating, fraud, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust, he said. A former state minister was grilled over "unexplained assets" while a New Delhi police officer was among those booked for corruption. CBI detectives also seized 800,000 rupees (28,604 dollars) from the internal revenue commissioner of Mumbai, India's business hub, and booked a top bureaucrat on charges of causing massive financial losses to the exchequer, Misra said. Detectives also found 2.6 million rupees (60,465 dollars) at an
anti-narcotics chief's home, a senior detective, who asked to remain
anonymous, said. |
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