Traffic cops found ‘most corrupt’ in Delhi Police

As per information shared by the different departments and wings of Delhi Police, 214 officials, posted in various units and districts, were found to be indulging in corruption in the given time period.

This has come to light after The Sunday Guardian filed a Right to Information (RTI) query with the Delhi Police seeking details of Delhi Police officials against whom action was taken for indulging in corruption between January 2014 and October 2016. Among the ones who have been charged under corruption cases in the traffic police unit are head constables, sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors, and several others.

After the Traffic Unit, officials of the Delhi Police’s Police Control Room (PCR), which is seen as the “face” of the Delhi Police, have been found to be indulging in the maximum number of corrupt practices, with 34 officials of the PCR unit being charged under corruption cases. They were followed by the South West district, where 17 officials were booked under corruption cases.

A senior police official with one of the units which has seen a large number of officials being found to be indulging in corruption said that the PCR and Traffic Unit have the maximum number of corruption cases because these police officials are mostly on the field dealing with the public directly on a daily basis. He further said that the PCR officials are the ones who report to an incident spot first and on persistence from the parties could perhaps settle matters through some “favours”.

Among the police officials from the South West District, a sub-inspector rank officer was booked for demanding a bribe of Rs 70,000 from a complainant for not objecting to the bail application and not torturing the complainant’s friend who was in police custody. Another sub-inspector was charged for demanding a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from the complainant to set him free in a case.

In the East district, seven police officials were charged under various corruption cases. While all the districts submitted the reply sought under the RTI, the office of the DCP, Central District, declined an answer.

Former Delhi Police top cop, N. Dilip Kumar, who retired as a Special Police Commissioner, feels that the actual incidents of Delhi Police officials indulging in corruption were greater in number.

“These statistics are just symbolic. Some constables and head constables are picked under corruption charges to make them scapegoats of a large iceberg of corruption that exists in the police system. These figures are again symptoms of the large-scale corruption that exists. What efforts are being made to rectify the system? Intentions are much more important than maintaining statistics. The top bosses, who are at the helm of affairs, should take proactive steps to correct the system, because if the bosses had the intention, the system would have been cleaned by now,” Kumar told The Sunday Guardian.