Why Babus Are Scared

The conviction of a top IAS officer for corruption sends shockwaves through the bureaucracy and threatens to paralyse government

- Asit Jolly And Shweta Punj

On May 22, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s special court in Delhi sentenced former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and two other serving government officials—K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samaria—to a two-year prison term. Earlier pronounced “guilty” of wrongdoing in the allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm, Kamal Sponge Steel & Power Limited (KSSPL), in 2008, the three were also ordered to pay individual fines of Rs 1 lakh each. Besides the bureaucrats, the court imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on the company and a personal fine of Rs 30 lakh and three-year jail term for its MD, Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.

What should ordinarily have passed off as just another judicial decree suddenly had the entire civil bureaucracy on its feet. The convictions, in particular that of the former coal secretary, have left many aghast. Gupta, a 1971 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is widely respected for his personal integrity. When the CBI first charged him, Gupta, who is known to live frugally, caused some consternation by refusing to apply for bail, asking the court to send him to jail instead. His colleagues said, “He simply didn’t have the means to hire expensive advocates to fight his case.”

Gupta, coal secretary from December 31, 2005, to November 2008, then joint secretary Kropha and then director Samaria in the coal ministry were held guilty by the court for irregularities in allocation of the Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in MP to KSSPL. The court held the bureaucrats guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code and for corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).