Very low conviction rate in corruption cases particularly as a result of the Special Court scrapping the cases involving sting operations has prompted the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to file appeals at the Supreme Court in record numbers in less than four months.

The prosecuting body said on Tuesday that it had appealed the court in 122 cases since the start of the current fiscal year in mid-July, which is more than double the appeals it filed in the whole of fiscal year 2021-22. The commission had filed appeals in 57 cases against the Special Court’s verdict in the last fiscal year. It had appealed in 58 cases in the fiscal 2020-21.

Of the total cases appealed, 112 are related to its sting operations on which the Special Court had given clean chit to the defendants.

“The Special Court gave clean chit to the defendants in most of the corruption cases related to sting operations based on the Supreme Court verdict that the evidence collected by handing out cash cannot be established as evidence,” said Shyam Prasad Bhandari, spokesperson of the anti-graft body. “But our claim while registering appeals at the Supreme Court is that the court should also consider other evidence such as telephone records, CDs and proof collected from independent sources.”

In April 2021, the Supreme Court barred the anti-graft body from conducting sting operations, saying that such acts go against the constitutional and legal provisions and the principle of criminal justice.

Before the Supreme Court verdict, the commission had faced criticism that it got involved in a conspiracy to finish off some government employees in the name of sting operations by handing out cash itself to prove somebody guilty.

As people caught red-handed in sting operations are mostly low-level employees, it was also facing accusation of prioritising ‘small fishes’ meaning the corruption cases involved small graft. In most of the corruption cases related to sting operations, the graft money involved has remained between a few thousand rupees and a few hundred thousands.

Bhandari defended the commission saying that as the corruption watchdog its duty is to investigate the complaints that are registered. “There are also cases of sting operations involving large graft amounts,” he added.

Since the Supreme Court barred sting operations, the rate of conviction by the Supreme Court slumped sharply. It is because the defendants used to be caught red-handed with cash which prove to be strong evidence while collecting the proof in other cases is complicated.

In the last fiscal year, the conviction rate was 38.51 percent compared to 71.68 percent in the previous fiscal 2020-21.

“It is the record low conviction rate in the 32-year history of the anti-graft body,” Bhandari, the CIAA spokesperson, told journalists in September. The conviction rate has fallen lower to 10.87 percent in Special Court verdicts in the current fiscal year. Last fiscal year, the Special Court gave the commission sought verdicts in 21 cases.

Of the total 184 Special Court verdicts it received so far this fiscal year, only 20 were in favour of the commission. It appealed in 122 cases, leaving out 18 cases.

Besides sting operations, the commission has also registered appeals at the Supreme Court in the cases related to corruption in social security allowance, amassing of illegal properties, leaking of question papers, wrong reports, revenue leakages, construction of bridges, and fake bank guarantees, among others.

The Covid-19 pandemic is also said to have affected its investigations. The commission had registered 113 cases in the fiscal 2020-21 and 131 in 2021-22, a sharp drop from 441 in the fiscal 2019-20.

Verdict in corruption cases

Fiscal yearConviction rate (%)

2017-1867.82

2018-1988.24

2019-2084.8

2020-2171.68

2021-2238.51

2022-2310.87 (till date)

Source: Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority