More grime under city’s white collar

[karira]

More grime under city’s white collar

White-collar crime is jumping in Mumbai. Compared to previous years, the number of economic offences registered in the city has increased significantly . Another indicator to this effect is the increase in the value of recovery and seizures made by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police.

This year, the worth of the seizures and recoveries made by the EOW has more than doubled as compared to last year and three times in comparison to the recoveries made in 2005.

While in 2005, the worth of valuables recovered stood a little over Rs62lakh, this year, till October the worth is close to Rs4 crore. In the year 2006, the value of goods seized was a little over Rs1.5 crore.
This fact was brought to light by a Right To Information (RTI) application which was filed by RTI activist Chetan Kothari.

According to a government resolution, the EOW is authorised to investigate cases in which the amount of fraud committed is more than Rs25 lakh. Offences in which the fraud committed is less than Rs25 lakh are investigated at the local police station level.

Incidentally, the number of cases registered with the EOW has also witnessed an upward movement. This year, till October - 91 cases have been registered with the EOW. All types of economic crimes ranging from cheating to organised job racketeering have been reported. In the whole of last year, 144 cases were registered while in 2005, 123 cases were registered.

Another fact revealed by the RTI application is that there is an increase in the number of people being acquitted by the courts in EOW offences. While 20 people were acquitted by court in the first ten months of this year, 11 people were pronounced innocent in 2006. While, only nine people were acquitted by the court in 2005.

DNA - Mumbai - More grime under city’s white collar - Daily News & Analysis