The arrest of TDP MLA Revanth Reddy by Anti-Corruption Bureau is a rare instance of ‘reverse trap’ in corruption cases.
In more than 90 per cent of the corruption cases registered by ACB, officials or persons who accepted illegal gratification or those abetting them have been arrested. Persons offering bribe are immune to prosecution while officials accepting it are prosecuted. In reverse trap cases, persons offering bribe are arrested “and prosecuted but the bribe receivers are exempted from prosecution”. ACB officials say there are multiple reasons for reverse trap cases being few. “Government officers rarely come forward to lodge complaints that they are being offered bribe because many of them don’t want to get entangled in court cases,” said an ACB official. Moreover, lodging a complaint for being offered illegal gratification would mean spending time going to court. Though the ACB officials tell employees to approach them if someone offers them bribe, the advisory has not received much response so far.
