India Corruption Complaint Filed Under UN Convention Against Corruption

India Corruption Complaint Filed Under UN Convention Against Corruption

As a journalist and anti-corruption activist, I have filed a detailed complaint to be treated under the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The abridged version of the complaint is given below.

By Rakesh Raman

To                                                                                                                                                                    April 28, 2022

Ms. Ghada Fathi Waly                                                                                    
Executive Director
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Vienna International Centre
A 1400 Vienna, Austria

Corruption Case: Corruption complaint from India to be prosecuted under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. Since the Indian authorities and law-enforcement agencies have completely failed during the past couple of years to prosecute this case and punish the culprits, it becomes essential for UNODC to deal with this case as per the provisions of the UNCAC so that the corrupt as well as the complicit Indian officials could be imprisoned at the earliest.

I have approached UNODC / UNCAC after exhausting all domestic administrative and judicial forums in India. As I have been filing various complaints against corrupt functionaries for the past couple of years, I have found that the administration and judiciary have completely collapsed in India. 

Although the Indian authorities have sent me dozens of perfunctory and meaningless letters to create a false impression that the action is being taken against the corrupt officials, no investigation has yet taken place as the investigating agencies are complicit in corruption crimes.

Mr. Antony Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State
[ Request to prosecute this case under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act under which the U.S. government imposes sanctions against human rights abusers, kleptocrats, and corrupt actors. ]

Copy for Urgent Action:

Dr. Jitendra Singh
Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) / Prime Minister Office (PMO)
Government of India, North Block, New Delhi 110 001

Dr. P. K. Mishra
Principal Secretary to PM
Prime Minister Office (PMO)
Government of India, New Delhi

Complaint by: Rakesh Raman

Dear Ms. Ghada Fathi Waly / UNODC,

I am a national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. I had also been associated with the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. 

As an anti-corruption activist, I run various campaigns to weed out bureaucratic and political corruption from India. I also publish The Integrity Bulletin news magazine that covers local and international corruption news and issues to engage with different stakeholders who are trying to combat corruption. 

I also run a community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness.

CORRUPTION CASES AND IMPUNITY IN INDIA

During the past few years, I have filed a number of complaints against the corrupt officials in India. Strangely, however, I have observed that the anti-corruption authorities and police are complicit in corruption crimes. They do not take any action against the corrupt functionaries. In fact, all the anti-corruption departments in India exist as defunct outfits. Therefore, the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians keep committing acts of corruption with impunity. 

This fact is also stated in its annual country report released in April 2022 by the U.S. Department of State. In an exclusive section, “Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government,” the report asserts that the law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials at all levels of government in India. However, officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity while there were numerous reports of government corruption during the year. 

The U.S. report further reveals that a lack of accountability for official misconduct persisted at all levels of government in India, contributing to widespread impunity. While investigations and prosecutions of individual cases took place, lax enforcement, a shortage of trained police officers, and an overburdened and under-resourced court system contributed to a low number of convictions, the report said.

In addition to the U.S. State Department report, there are multiple global surveys which reveal that corruption is increasing rapidly in all parts of India. The U.S. report adds that corruption in India happens at different levels including the payment of bribes to expedite services such as police protection, school admission, water supply, and government assistance. 

While rampant corruption is happening at every step in India, the untamed bureaucrats are blatantly defying laws that are supposed to prevent corruption. The latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released in January 2022 by Transparency International reveals that India is among the most corrupt countries of the world.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, asserts that India, with a score of just 40, is ranked 85 in the world. In other words, India is more corrupt than 84 other countries.

COMPLICIT ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENCIES

All the anti-corruption agencies of India – such as the Lokpal, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Lokayuktas, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Economic Offences Wings (EOWs) of Police, state police departments, and also the DoPT as well as the Cabinet Secretariat – are working hand in glove with the corrupt government functionaries. 

Disturbed by the complicity of top anti-corruption departments in corruption crimes, in March 2022, I sent a petition to the President and the Chief Justice of India for the removal of the anti-corruption authority Lokpal under charges of non-performance and dereliction of duty. I received a response letter dated April 6, 2022 from DoPT (Mr. S.G. Mulchandaney, Deputy Secretary to the Government of India). However, the Lokpal was not removed and the corruption continues in different government departments. 

VIOLATION OF ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWS

It is being observed that the anti-corruption investigation and the prosecution agencies are complicit in corruption crimes while they have formed a colossal criminal gang with the corrupt officials. The police and authorities do not follow any law to handle corruption complaints and ignore even the fundamental Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act) and other provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC) to deal with corruption complaints.

Therefore, I do not expect a fair treatment to my complaints in India while these are being discarded or the action is being delayed inordinately under one pretext or another. So, as usual, the corrupt bureaucrats will never be caught and punished. They will keep committing more corruption crimes in connivance with the anti-corruption agencies.

It is also being observed that the anti-corruption agencies in India are either scared of the government politicians or complicit in the crimes being committed by bureaucrats and politicians. That is why they either ignore the corruption complaints against government functionaries or find excuses to drop the cases after writing some perfunctory copy-paste letters. I receive dozens of such useless letters from the government officials. 

The authorities / anti-corruption agencies act as mere post offices to send public complaints from one office to another without holding any investigation into the corruption cases and without punishing the corrupt officials. 

Moreover, the careless police officers and investigating agencies discard the public complaints and close the cases arbitrarily after blindly forwarding the complaints to other offices or sending curt, vague responses to the complainants. 

The investigating officers are so unskilled and almost illiterate that they cannot understand the complaints. Since most police and investigating officers do not understand English and lack communication skills, they refuse to accept complaints. In response to some detailed complaints running into multiple pages including evidence, the police officers simply send a one-sentence response to the complainants that “no cognizable offence is made out.” 

But the fact is that the investigating officers do not bother to read the complaints and do not understand complaints written in English. Since there is no accountability for such carelessness of police and investigating officers, they commit such crimes of dereliction of duty at an alarming frequency. As a result, there are inordinate delays in resolving the corruption cases or the culprits never get punished. The entire complaints management systems are deliberately made so complex that the complainants never get justice and the corrupt bureaucrats are hardly punished.

As a result of bureaucratic and political corruption, the people of India are suffering under unprecedented inflation, pollution, hunger, unemployment, human rights violations, injustice, and extreme misery. 

It is being observed that the Indian politicians, bureaucrats, police, and judges have formed a criminal gang in India which has become a totally lawless state. Since top bureaucrats, police, and politicians are part of the criminal racket, they ignore public complaints against corrupt officials. As a result, the suffering people have no other option but to approach the courts. While courts are always overcrowded and judges lack domain expertise, their decisions are either excessively delayed or fail to deliver justice.

The following cases depict how government officials collude with criminals and commit crimes with impunity while the ordinary citizens are suffering. As the justice system has completely collapsed in India, I request UNODC, U.S. Department of State, and the global law-enforcement agencies to hold transparent investigations into the following cases after suspending the services of accused officials named in my complaints. 

In order to stop corruption in India, these officials must be jailed as early as possible because their presence in the public poses a serious threat to the citizens who want to live in a corruption-free environment.

The names of some of the main accused officials are also given below:

Mr. Devinder Singh, IAS, former Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS), Delhi Government

Mr. Pankaj Kumar, IAS, District Magistrate (North-East) Delhi

Mr. Devesh Singh, IAS, Registrar (RCS) 

Mr. Rakesh Das, Deputy Registrar at RCS office 

Mr. Manish Kumar Gupta, IAS, Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority (DDA)

Mr. Anurag Jain, IAS, former Vice Chairman, DDA

Mr. Ajay Saroj, Director (Building) at DDA 

Mr. Yogesh Tyagi, Dy. Director at DDA

Mr. Manish Khurana, AD&SJ-cum-P.O. at Appellate Tribunal – MCD (ATMCD)

Mr. Santosh Kumar Meena, DCP; Mr. Anto Alphonse, DCP; and Mr. Shankar Choudhary, DCP of Delhi Police

Ms. Chhaya Sharma,  Jt. Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Delhi Police

If this entire case is prosecuted honestly, at least 20 government functionaries and many others should be jailed.

You can click here to download the full complaint.

Contact

Rakesh Raman
Editor, RMN News Service [ Website ]
Founder, RMN Foundation [ Website ]
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, India
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