Citizens who provide their own money to help Haryana's anti-corruption authorities trap officials allegedly demanding bribes will no longer have to wait until the conclusion of lengthy criminal proceedings to get their money back, with the state government creating a dedicated revolving fund for reimbursement.
The Haryana government has constituted the "Haryana Vigilance Bureau Revolving Funds" specifically to reimburse complainants whose money is used as trap money during corruption investigations, according to an official statement issued on Monday.
The mechanism has been notified by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi and will be administered by the Director General of the State Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Bureau (SVACB), Haryana.
The initiative addresses a practical problem faced by complainants assisting investigators in bribery cases. Currency provided for a trap can become part of the evidence in a criminal case and consequently remain tied up during judicial proceedings, potentially leaving the complainant without access to the money for a considerable period.
Under the new mechanism, complainants will be reimbursed from the revolving fund instead of having to bear the financial cost while the original trap money remains connected with criminal proceedings.
Trap cases generally involve a complainant approaching the anti-corruption agency after an official allegedly demands illegal gratification. Investigators may then organise a controlled operation in which the complainant hands over marked or otherwise documented currency to the accused.
The money recovered during the operation can subsequently become material evidence in the prosecution.
The new fund effectively separates the complainant's immediate financial interests from the time taken to complete the criminal case, while ensuring that the amount eventually released by the court is returned to the government's revolving corpus.
The government has laid down a multi-stage process for approving reimbursement.
After a trap operation, the investigating officer will forward a reimbursement proposal to the Range In-charge concerned, who may be an Inspector General, Deputy Inspector General or Superintendent of Police.
The proposal will then be processed for consideration at the Vigilance Headquarters.
A three-member committee will take the final decision on reimbursement after examining each case on merit.
An Additional Director General of Police or Inspector General of the State Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Bureau will chair the committee. A Deputy Inspector General and a District Attorney or Deputy District Attorney will serve as its other members.
The scrutiny mechanism is intended to ensure that reimbursements are linked to legitimate trap operations and released only after the relevant records have been examined.
Approval by the committee will not immediately complete the process.
Before receiving the reimbursement, the complainant will have to submit an affidavit undertaking that the original trap money, once released by the court following completion of criminal proceedings, will be deposited back into the revolving fund.
After the undertaking is furnished, the sanctioned reimbursement amount will be transferred directly to the complainant's bank account.
The arrangement effectively provides the complainant with an advance replacement for money locked up as evidence while preserving the government's ability to recover the corresponding amount later.
Once judicial proceedings conclude and the original currency or its value is released, it will return to the fund and become available for reimbursement in subsequent cases.
The government has also incorporated safeguards intended to keep the revolving mechanism financially sustainable and subject to external scrutiny.
The corpus will be replenished whenever 70 per cent of the available fund has been utilised. This is intended to ensure that reimbursement does not stop because a large number of trap cases have temporarily exhausted the available money.
The fund's accounts will also be audited by the Principal Accountant General (Audit), Haryana.
The combination of replenishment requirements, committee-level approval, affidavits and external auditing is aimed at ensuring that public money released through the mechanism remains traceable.
The initiative could have particular significance in cases where the bribe demanded is substantial.
Until now, a complainant willing to cooperate with investigators could face the prospect of having personal funds tied up for the duration of a corruption prosecution. Court proceedings can continue for extended periods, making the financial burden particularly difficult for complainants with limited resources.
By providing reimbursement soon after an approved trap, the government hopes to remove that potential deterrent to reporting corruption and cooperating with the vigilance authorities.
The mechanism does not alter the investigation or prosecution of the accused official. Instead, it deals specifically with the financial consequences faced by the citizen whose money is used to execute the trap.
With the revolving fund now formally constituted, Haryana has created a dedicated financial channel designed to ensure that assisting authorities in catching an alleged bribe-taker does not itself become a monetary burden for the complainant.