Far from corruption-free

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India’s premier anti-smuggling agency, usually remains in the news for the seizure of a diverse variety of contraband — gold, drugs, antiques, firearms, animal skins, foreign currency etc. However, the arrest of an Additional Director General, posted in Ludhiana, and two other persons in a bribery case has exposed chinks in the DRI’s apparently incorruptible armour. The CBI acted on a complaint alleging that the accomplices demanded Rs 3 crore on the officer’s behalf to ensure that he (complainant) would not be implicated by the DRI in a case pertaining to the recovery of an exporter’s documents. The CBI nabbed both persons while they were accepting Rs 25 lakh from the complainant; subsequently, the ‘public servant’ was arrested.

Rooting out corruption was one of the key promises that helped the NDA wrest power from the scam-tainted UPA in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. PM Modi’s slogan, ‘Na khaunga, na khane dunga’, became the catchline of the anti-graft campaign. Less than a month after being elected for the second successive term, the government had sacked 12 Income Tax officers who were accused of corruption, forgery and professional misconduct, besides demoting four Joint Commissioner-rank I-T officers to the rank of Deputy Commissioner over graft charges. In another purge in June last year, 15 senior customs and central excise officers, including one in the rank of Principal Commissioner, had been ‘compulsorily retired’ on charges such as amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of income.

Such exemplary action should have acted as a deterrent to other unscrupulous officers, but the DRI case indicates that the government needs to do a lot more to clean its Augean stables. The CBI’s credibility, too, has come under a cloud in recent years, mainly due to the unsavoury tussle between its top officers and the accusations that it has become the handmaiden of the ruling party. The government should strengthen its monitoring mechanism to ensure that black sheep in apex investigative agencies are identified and shown the door regularly. The law must not spare the tainted law-enforcers.