)
Anew advice greets the people of Delhi these days. Billboards and advertisements on the radio ask users to not rebuff a bribe asker and instead make a video or audio recording of the official asking for money. They must then call the four-digit number, 1031, to report the incident and submit evidence. This is the Aam Aadmi Party's promise to root out corruption from Delhi, one of the key promises that helped it bag 67 of the 70 seats in the recent assembly elections.
While the intention is noble, there are several issues that arise out of Delhi's precarious position as a partial state. For instance, the Delhi Police reports to the Lieutenant-Governor, who is a representative of the central government in the state, instead of to the chief minister. But the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi Police, due to the nature of its constitution, reports to the Delhi government. This is where complaints from the helpline are eventually sent for determining offences and conducting arrests.
The anti-corruption helpline is headed by the chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, followed by his advisor (Gopal Mohan), the director of vigilance (who comes under the purview of the deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia) and the additional commissioner of police (anti-corruption branch).
Shrouded in mystery
The exact process of handling, filtering and taking action on complaints is shrouded in mystery. A request for the address of the helpline's call centre is met with a strict no from all officials involved.
At the AAP office in Vithalbhai Patel House in central Delhi, Gopal Mohan sits behind a bare desk. Barring some chatter from volunteers, the room has a quiet, clean air. Like all other AAP offices, the floor is sparkling clean because of the offices' policy of not allowing visitors to bring their shoes inside.
"I can only share bare facts. All other information is confidential," says Mohan, with a patient smile. "If we reveal the location or the process, you will publish it and it will become harder for us to catch corrupt officials red-handed," he explains. The helpline and the process seem to be intrinsically dependant on the element of surprise. Officials believe that it also helps mitigate corruption by instilling a fear of being caught.
According to Mohan, the helpline receives, on an average, 3,000 calls every day. Calls are received at a centralised call centre manned by 40 executives, four team leaders and 10 senior level officials and about 50 volunteers. "Most calls right now are very generic in nature. For instance, a caller called to complain that a certain department is corrupt," he says.
These calls and others that are related to personal grievances with government departments, he adds, are not actionable. This is where the filtering process kicks in. Calls are sorted department-wise, a report of which is then shared with volunteers or "facilitators" - AAP members.
These facilitators then further sort these calls to mark those that are actionable. The final step is to mark whether a complaint is accompanied by evidence or not. Callers with actionable complaints are called back for more details about the incident.
"Our facilitators help callers get comfortable with the idea of visiting the anti-corruption branch. If they have apprehensions, the facilitators arrange for a meeting at the complainants residence," explains Mohan. A facilitator, with the help of a police officer from the anti-corruption branch, also aids a complainant procure evidence and create a trap to catch the offender "red-handed".
The log of calls also helps create an "observatory" mechanism to review loopholes in the process and fix them. "Through these calls, we also want to understand the pattern of corruption so that we can effect a systemic change," says Mohan. But is the machinery equipped to handle the volume of calls? "So far, we have been successful. We conduct almost five to six raids every day," he says.
I meet a facilitator for the helpline but he hesitates to share details about his work. "Our job is to encourage people to come out and speak up against corruption," he says, refusing to shed more light.
Jurisdiction issues
At his office in Vikas Bhawan II in Civil Lines, S S Yadav, additional commissioner of police, anti-corruption branch, seems to carefully measure his words before responding to my queries. "The helpline is not the only work that our branch does," he says rather protectively.
After being transferred to this division a little over a week ago, Yadav says there have been 17 arrests in the last 10 days, as compared to 10-12 arrests made in the 100 days preceding the launch of the helpline. "Seven or eight of these arrests were made on the basis of complaints that came through the helpline," he explains.
The Delhi Police, much like the state of Delhi, is also struggling with jurisdiction issues. In July 2014, the Union home ministry issued a notification taking away the territorial jurisdiction of Delhi Police and restricting its powers to the national capital territory. This means that the Delhi Police will not be able to file cases against central government officials and others who do not come under the Delhi government's purview.
When I ask Yadav about issues of jurisdiction, he becomes uncomfortable. "We can only go by what the rules say," he says cryptically. "But I am confident that things will sort themselves out because of the keen interest that our chief minister is taking in this anti-corruption drive," he says. A loyal soldier does not take his eyes off the goal, it seems.
Mohan, too, mentions jurisdiction issues as something that the central and state governments need to iron out. "Currently, we can officially take complaints against those corrupt officials who have direct dealings with the public, like the officials of the Delhi Development Authority." But when it comes to complaints against central government ministries, there is a lack of clarity regarding how they will be dealt with. "These things will be ironed out gradually," says Mohan.
Sukesh Jain, director of vigilance, is equally optimistic. "This helpline was successful the first time it was launched. We hope that this will be useful in the long run too," he says, at his plush office inside the Delhi Secretariat.
His optimism goes up a notch when I ask him about the funds that have been allocated for this helpline. "Because the chief minister has zero tolerance for corruption, he has told us to devote our entire energy to this initiative and not worry about funds," he says.
In the court of law
Logistics and jurisdiction aside, arrests and cases against corruption would mean an increase in number of court cases. Wouldn't this clog the judicial machinery? "Corruption cases are tried in two special sessions courts. But we will assess the situation and put in a request for more such courts in case the backlog becomes unmanageable," explains Jain.
The other issue is whether the mobile phone or spy cam recordings will be admissible in court. "There are certain parameters and if those are met, this evidence can help build a strong case against the offender," says Jain. The outlined parameters require the recording to be clear and unedited. The device with which the recording is made needs to be deposited with the anti-corruption branch for forensic investigation.
Yadav, too, feels that once due diligence is done on the evidence presented at the initial stages, the judicial proceedings become smoother.
But KTS Tulsi, senior Supreme Court advocate, says that recordings made without the consent of authorities can land those filing a case in a legal soup. "Competent authorities review requests for conducting these recordings and unless due process is followed, such evidence can be considered inadmissible," he says.
The Delhi government is attempting to address this lacuna by helping complainants get evidence that would be admissible in court. By catching offenders red-handed, the process also creates witnesses who can strengthen the case.
Delhi government's super-secret, much-publicised initiative seems to be making the right noises for now. Whether it will be able to sustain itself in the long run remains to be seen. Mohan tries to look at the future of this anti-corruption drive: "The helpline is only a means. The end goal is much larger, much harder."
