CHENNAI: The BCCI’s plan to beef up its Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) seems to have hit a roadblock with dearth of competent retired police officers. The move was aimed at making the unit more robust with efficient officers at the state level. The BCCI had announced its plan to recruit 10 former IPS officers last December. They had planned to appoint five zonal heads and an integrity officer under each zone. A panel comprising Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai, member Diana Edulji, ACU chief Ajit Singh and former Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy conducted interviews to hire suitable candidates. 

A retired police officer of the rank of Director General (DG) or Inspector General (IG) between 60 and 65 years was eligible for the post of zonal head while to be eligible for the post of integrity officer, one has to be a retired Superintendent of Police (SP). 

The process remains incomplete even after four months with only south and north zone getting the desired officers. “We’re done with appointments in south and north zone. A former joint commissioner from Bengaluru has been appointed as zonal officer and a retired assistant commissioner from Lokayukta Bengaluru has been made integrity officer forw the south zone.

We also managed to find suitable candidates for the north zone. A retired IG has been made zonal head and a retired Delhi SP has been hi­r­ed as integrity officer. We’re st­­­ill looking for qualified officers for the remaining zones,” an ACU source told this newspaper. 

It was learnt that the ACU interviewed a few candidates in Jaipur for the central zone but didn’t finalise anyone as the interviewees failed to fulfil the eligibility criterion. Speaking on delay in appoi­n­tments, the source said the process is on and all the vacancies will be filled soon. He affirmed th­at the ACU has been strengthened to a great extent in the pa­st few years. “We’ve increased the staff considerably and have re­tired police officers on roll. Presence of retired cops also help us in smooth exchange of information with police.”

He might sound optimistic but non-appointment of officials in remaining zones could affect functioning of the ACU. Dearth of staff could even render the unit helpless while investigating cases of doubtful integrity and serious offences like spot and match fixing especially with the Indian Premier League going on and the ICC World Cup to follow.

Arothe’s fate depends on police chargesheet
The ACU will pursue case of the former India women’s coach Tushar Arothe, who was booked for betting last week by Vadodara Crime Branch, only after the police file chargesheet. “We’ve decided to wait and let the cops file the chargesheet. Once it is done, we’ll initiate our proceedings,” said the ACU source.