The Hindu : Surprise check by Vigilance at Rural SP's office

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Surprise check by Vigilance at Rural SP's office

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Jan. 6. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) today conducted a surprise check at the Rural SP's office here on Monday afternoon following a spate of complaints from the public that certain corrupt elements in the rural police were purposefully delaying passport verification procedures to extort money from applicants.

When contacted, a senior VACB said that the surprise check was authorised by the Director (Vigilance), Hormese Tharakan, with the approval of the Director General of Police, K. J. Joseph.

The Vigilance team that conducted the surprise check at the Rural District Special Branch office found more than 4,500 pending applications, he said. Many of the applications were as old as 2001. The Vigilance team also found about 2,200 passport applications that had already been verified by the police kept bundled at the Special Branch office.

A Vigilance official pointed out that departmental procedures insist that passport applications should be send to the Regional Passport Office within 15 days after verification. However, this was not seen done in the case of a large number of applications.

The Vigilance has also stumbled upon evidence pointing to the existence of an alleged racket at the Rural SP's office for collecting money from passport applicants. The Vigilance was probing the role of two policemen attached to the SP's office who are allegedly the middlemen for extorting money from passport applicants. An official said that some middle level officers at the Rural SP's office were purposefully by-passed in order to facilitate the racket.

The Vigilance has prepared an inventory of what was found at the district SP's office. The surprise check was conducted by a 10-member team headed by the DySP (Vigilance), Hitapalan Nair, under the supervision of the IG (Vigilance), Siby Mathew. The Vigilance team was accompanied by the Assistant Commissioner, Balachandran, of the city police constabulary.

Sources at the VACB said a detailed report would be send to the Government on basis of the findings of the Vigilance team. Departmental action would be recommended against certain officials after seeking their written and oral explanation. The check which commenced in the afternoon ended at 7.30 p.m.

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