Hyderabad, January 02: His long stint as the State Intelligence chief must have given senior IPS officer K Aravinda Rao an insight into corruption among bureaucrats, politicians and the powersthat- be.
Perhaps, it is this ‘‘data bank’’ on corruption in the corridors of power which is now helping Aravinda Rao, Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), know where illgotten money is stashed and who is minting money from where.
Ask him if corruption is rampant among the All India Service (AIS) officers, pat comes the reply: ‘‘Why not? corruption does exist among the All India Service Officers (which includes IAS and IPS among others).
Problem arises when we begin to trace it. People have come out with new ways to make money and also to keep it.’’ Aravinda Rao, appearing relaxed after a hectic five-year stint as the State Intelligence chief, says being the ACB chief is different from being the boss of the Intelligence wing. ’’It was an entirely different job profile and I had to report only to the Government,‘‘ he explains.
On criticism that the ACB has to seek permission from the Government to nail AIS officers, which more often than not doesn’t materialise, Aravinda Rao says, ’’The Government will surely give us the nod to go ahead if we have proper intelligence and present enough evidence. The difficult part is to identify assets of corrupt officials.‘‘ Vague reference to corruption in the corridors of power is of no help, he observes.
The IPS officer obviously knows his job in and out. He candidly admits that intelligence gathering in the ACB is very poor and reveals his plans to set up a special intelligence cell to focus exclusively on government babus.
’’I admit intelligence gathering in ACB is poor. We want to hire the services of private agencies to identify the worst officials and departments who are neck-deep in corruption,’’ he says.
After Aravinda Rao took over as the ACB chief, his team of officers have caught several ‘‘big fish’’ each of whom owns a minimum of several crores of rupees.
–Agencies