PROSECUTIONS ON THE RISE, BUT CORRUPTION STILL PLAGUES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENNAI 000269 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL ETRD IN SUBJECT: PROSECUTIONS ON THE RISE, BUT CORRUPTION STILL PLAGUES TAMIL NADU ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Tamil Nadu has seen a series of arrests of bureaucrats for official corruption in the recent months. The cases have included several high-profile arrests of senior officers of the Indian Administrative Service, as well as lower level officials. Consulate contacts report that the arrests reflect a mixed picture. On one hand, they are a sign of stepped up anti-corruption activity by law enforcement authorities, spurred on by NGO investigations and heightened media scrutiny. But with massive graft on the part of the state's political leadership going unpunished, corruption will continue to plague Tamil Nadu. Passport officer picked up -------------- ¶2. (U) On April 25, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Regional Passport Officer Sumathi Ravichandran and her husband on charges of bribery. Two travel agents, including politician Fathima Muzaffar, were also arrested for acting as conduits in bribery deals. According to media reports, Muzaffar took 9000 rupees (USD 187.50) from a passport applicant, in addition to the official fee, in order to bribe Ravichandran. CBI officials alleged that Ravichandran's husband, a medical doctor, received bribes from passport applicants and used coded instructions on applications forwarded to his wife's office. CBI searches of the Ravichandran residence, vehicles, and safe deposit boxes turned up 500,000 rupees (USD 10,000),property documents, and about 750 grams of gold. (Note: It is widely believed that citizens must pay a bribe in order to avoid inordinate delays in obtaining their passports in Chennai. The Consulate's exchange grantees often report the difficulties they face in getting passports in time to participate in their programs due to this widespread practice. End note.) Port director caught with big bundle of cash -------------- ¶3. (U) On August 4, the CBI raided the office and homes of former Chennai Port Trust Chairman K. Suresh and Deputy Conservator M.K. Sinha and filed cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act charging that they abused their official position for monetary gains. The CBI charged that the officials had unlawfully allotted a berth to an abandoned ship in exchange for money, causing a loss to the port of 200 million rupees (USD 4.16 million). According to officials, police seized five kilograms of gold, bank deposit documents for 23 million rupees (USD 479,000) and $6,443 from his premises. Protector shakes down emigrants -------------- ¶4. (U) On July 20, the CBI arrested R. Sekar, Protector of Emigrants (Chennai) and two agents on charges of corruption, seizing 10 million rupees (USD 208,000) from their premises. Indians seeking to work overseas are required to obtain a clearance from the Office of the Protector of Emigrants. According to news reports, Sekar used bribes he collected from applicants seeking emigration clearance to pay a bribe himself, which he used to secure his son's admission in an engineering program. The CBI registered a case against Sekar and his agents under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and the Indian Penal Code. Rural health director takes kickback for drug contract -------------- ¶5. (U) On August 6, the Tamil Nadu Directorate for Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) arrested the Director of Medical and Rural Health Services (Employees State Insurance),M. Ezhilarasi. The DVAC had information that drug company representatives planned to give 853,000 rupees (USD 17,700) to Ezhilarasi, who had allegedly demanded 1 million rupees, as a kickback in exchange for a 150 million rupee (USD 3.125 million) contract for drug supplies. The DVAC team reportedly had the official's house under surveillance and arrested her soon after she took the bribe. Vice-Chancellor got rich from bribes -------------- ¶6. (U) On August 7, DVAC officials raided the homes and offices of the Vice-Chancellor of the Coimbatore Anna University, R. Radhakrishnan. According to news reports quoting DVAC sources, the raids stemmed from a petition in the Madras High Court alleging that the Vice Chancellor had amassed wealth far beyond his legitimate sources of income. Charges against the Vice-Chancellor included accepting bribes in exchange for granting affiliation between the university and over 100 private colleges and for awarding university contracts. NGOs and cops see positive trend -------------- CHENNAI 00000269 002 OF 002 ¶7. (SBU) A.A. Kumaran, Vice President of 5th Pillar, an anti-corruption NGO, described the recent arrests as "a good trend." Kumaran said young Indians are fed up with their society's entrenched corruption, citing the role young people played in these cases. For example, he pointed out that young journalists filed most of the recent stories about corruption. According to Kumaran, older reporters, who are more jaded, do not believe corruption cases merit attention. Kumaran also expressed satisfaction with the cooperation his NGO gets from law enforcement authorities, noting that both the CBI and the DVAC take up cases that Fifth Pillar refers to them. (Note: Generally speaking, the CBI has jurisdiction over federal corruption cases and the DVAC over state corruption cases. End note.) "The CBI and the DVAC work closely with us," he said. Kumaran cited the Anna University case as an example where Fifth Pillar initiated an investigation which the DVAC later took up. ¶8. (SBU) DVAC Director K. Ramanujam agreed that the spate of recent arrests reflects a trend of increased enforcement activity, noting that DVAC filed twice as many cases in 2008 as it did in the previous year. He told post that leads from citizens, NGOs, and media reports are important means to ferret out corruption that complement DVAC's own investigations. He said that the increased media attention to corruption has helped law enforcement. "People are more likely to come forward to complain to DVAC," after having seen the newspaper stories, according to Ramanujam. He also said stories about arrests and prosecutions deter corruption by enhancing bureaucrats' fear of social stigma. CBI credits text messaging campaign -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The CBI credits its recent successes to a text messaging campaign first launched in 2008. A standard CBI text message reads: "To fight corruption, inform SP, CBI, Chennai in 94447 70937/ 24916257 on demand of bribe/corrupt practice/huge assets owned by central government servants." News reports quoted CBI sources saying they sent messages to 5 million mobile phone users. According to the CBI, the public response was massive: they received about 200 calls and 40 emails every day from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. News reports claimed that the text messages generated leads resulting in 50 cases and the arrest of several top officials last year. Overall picture bleak, despite positive steps -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Both Kumaran of Fifth Pillar and Ramanujam painted a fairly bleak view of the overall situation despite the recent positive news. Kumaran said "80 to 90 percent" of the officials in the state are corrupt. As such, the struggle against corruption will be a generational one, which is "why we focus on the young people." Ramanujam said that he cautions his officers to be realistic; that corruption "cannot be eliminated." The DVAC, he noted, has only 700 officers to police the hundreds of thousands of public servants working throughout the entire state of Tamil Nadu (which is approximately the same size as Greece, with a population exceeding that of the United Kingdom). ¶11. (SBU) He noted that even though DVAC has increased prosecutions, "the courts take too long" with legal proceedings taking five to ten years. The officials accused of corruption are suspended from duty pending adjudication of their cases, Ramanujam said, but they continue to receive salaries and benefits. The long delays demoralize enforcement authorities, making it difficult to keep staff motivated. A Chennai journalist who covers official corruption told post that the CBI and DVAC are "trying hard but corruption in Tamil Nadu is too much" for them to tackle. Comment: A long way to go -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Comment: Tamil Nadu has a history of high levels of official corruption, which is linked to the ascendance of the Tamil nationalist (or "Dravidian") political parties in the 1960s. But corrupt politicians require corrupt bureaucrats to help them skim money, so the state's administrative services are riddled with graft-seekers. Stepped up anti-corruption activity by NGOs, law enforcement authorities, and the media is a welcome development. But the recent arrests and prosecutions have been limited to the state's bureaucrats, without reaching political levels. So long as the state's political elite continue to engage in breathtaking graft -- as personified by the absurd personal fortunes amassed by Chief Minister Karunanidhi and his rival Jayalalithaa -- corruption will remain a drag on Tamil Nadu's development. End comment. SIMKIN