Patna, Sept. 9: Based on a proposal tabled by director general (vigilance) Neelmani, the Nitish Kumar government has decided to open a Patna special court to carry out speedy trials of cases in which the vigilance bureau has trapped public servants red handed during 2006-2007.

“Look, there is hardly any difference between a corrupt public servant and a hard-core criminal who loots and abducts. In fact, corruption is one of the main reasons for the rise and sustenance of hard-core criminals,” said director-general (DG) vigilance Neelami. He added: “We would have to treat the corrupt public servants the way we treat the dacoits and abductors.”

Maybe he was referring to a recent case, where the bureau caught a senior Bihar engineer accepting Rs 10,000 from a woman, after 10pm in a hotel room, a couple of days ago. The vigilance sleuths also recovered pronographic materials, CDs, condoms and lakhs of cash from his possession during subsequent raids.

State’s decision has virtually set in motion a process to treat the corrupt officials on a par with many criminals and criminal-turned-politicians, who are, of late, spending time behind bars thanks again to special courts carrying out speedy disposal of cases.

The vigilance bureau has caught more than 160 public servants, including IAS and IPS officials, senior officials of the forest department, besides engineers.

It was the public health engineering department’s executive engineer, Surendra Prasad, whom the sleuths caught accepting Rs 10,000 from an NGO operative, Kiran Tiwary, in his hotel room.

They also recovered condoms, objectionable CDs, besides cash, a couple of days ago.

Asked as to why the special court is being set up to carry out speedy trials especially against officials caught in 2006-2007, Neelmani explained: “To begin with the court would try cases in which sanctions have been procured to prosecute the officials concerned. We have procured sanction to prosecute 145 officials who were caught primarily during 2006-2007.”

Moreover, the vigilance bureau has registered only 47 trap cases during 11 years (1995 to 2006) and has procured no sanction to prosecute the officials in these cases.

“The previous regime was using the vigilance bureau as a tool to settle scores against hostile officials. The vigilance was not allowed to do its proper work of carrying out campaign against corrupt officials. Now, we have given it full liberty to go hard on the corrupt officials,” the deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi said.

Neelmani also added that earlier officials managed to “evade” departmental proceedings as protocol stated that proceedings should be set in motion only after the court disposed off cases against them. “There was a certain confusion at the government level regarding the law,” he said.

“Now we have proposed that the departmental proceedings must begin against a personnel right after someone gets caught. They must be suspended after the chargesheet is lodged against them,” the DG (vigilance) said, adding: “The government is all set to accept this proposal too.”