Tamil Nadu: Gone are the days when the anti-corruption would catch “red-handed” corrupt officials of government departments while accepting bribes at offices. In Tamil Nadu, the DVAC (Directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption) police, would, like elsewhere in India, arrest corrupt officials red-handed by applying chemicals to the bribe money.
However, with the advent of technology of cashless transactions, officials of the DVAC are having a tough time in nabbing the culprits with bribes being readily accepted in digital transactions, sources said. Sources said that the corrupt officials are accepting bribes through payment apps such as Google Pay, Phone Pay, Paytm and other applications.
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DVAC officials said that establishing bribery through the newest mode is a challenging task for the department. Significantly, official figures have revealed that the entrapment cases have drastically declined in the last four years with experts attributing the fall to digital bribery transactions. According to the data, 74 cases of corruption were registered in 2019 in Chennai alone out of which 16 were entrapment while 67 cases were registered in 2020 of which 18 entrapment cases were registered.
Likewise, 44 cases were registered in 2021, out of which 16 cases of entrapment were registered. The number declined to only 39 cases and 6 entrapment cases registered in the last year. This year, only 11 cases have been registered in Chennai alone till May this year, an official said. Significantly, Thiruvallur, Theni and Mayiladuthurai districts of Tamil Nadu have not recorded any cases this year.
As far as the northern region is concerned, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur, Vellore, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Thiruvannamalai, Chengalpattu, Tirupattur, Ranipet and Kallakkurichi districts have reported a very low number of only eight cases. With regard to the central region, only Trichy district has reported seven cases.
An official of the DVAC said the department needs to chalk out a strategy to deal with the challenge of digital bribery cases.
