Uttar Pradesh: 139 non-gazetted officers arrested this year for graft

LUCKNOW: Continuing the crackdown on corruption in accordance with the zero-tolerance policy of the state government, the Anti-Corruption Organization (ACO) of Uttar Pradesh Police arrested as many as 139 non-gazetted officers on charges of graft this year since January.
Director General of Police Mukul Goel said the crackdown by ACO has been weeding out corrupt officers from the system besides sending a strong message that corruption will not be accepted in any form. “We will not allow corruption in the system at any level,” he said.
The DGP attributed the arrests to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s policy of zero-tolerance towards corruption. Last year also, the ACO had arrested as many as 175 government officials for corrupt practices, Goel added.
As per records, officials of the anti-corruption unit laid 20 traps since January and caught officials red-handed. There were two police personnel and 18 employees of other government departments, including education, district administration, Nagar Nigam etc., among those arrested.
Recently, three government officials, sub-inspector Ram Milan Yadav, auditor in education department Vinay Kumar and Lekhpal Pooran Singh were caught red-handed taking bribes in the state. All three were nabbed on a single day.
Superintendent of police, ACO, Rajiv Mehrotra, said, “As many as 105 officials were arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act and 13 under other miscellaneous charges while 20 were nabbed red-handed.”
Mehrotra further told TOI, “Even today, we nabbed a sub-inspector Dinesh Yadav red handed demanding Rs 10,000 bribe from a complainant who had registered a case of criminal intimidation in Kotwali area of Sultanpur district.
Moreover, in a bid to encourage people to report corruption by government officials, the vigilance establishment has launched a dedicated ‘anti-bribery helpline.
The helpline number (9454401866) will be available from 10am to 6pm for giving information about corruption while the complainant’s name will be kept confidential.