Bhubaneswar: The rate of conviction in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PCA) in Odisha has dropped further to 46% in 2020, as compared to the previous year.
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The tainted IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak was a prized catch of the state Vigilance department.
The disproportionate assets case of Rs 9.35 crore initiated against the accused IFS officer Pathak is the highest ever DA amount in a single case in the Vigilance department, the state anti-corruption agency stated in its yearly performance report released Friday afternoon.
According to an official source, in over half of the cases registered under the PCA between 2015 to 2019 in the state, the accused persons could manage to obtain acquittals from local courts of law. Same was the scenario last year, the official source added.
Sentencing the accused persons as guilty in the judicial courts had been oscillating in between 43% to 48%, for the period starting from 2015 to 2019. The conviction rate in the year 2019 was only 48.6% which further diminished to an extent of 46% during the last year.
The Vigilance department registered 245 criminal cases against 381 persons including 53 Class I officers, 37 Class II officers, 184 Class III employees, 5 Class IV employees, 26 other public servants and 76 private individuals during the year 2020, the report revealed.
PNN