CVC can now probe corruption cases in private sector banks
Central Vigilance Commission can now probe corruption allegations against private sector banks and their employees. This comes after Supreme Court ruled that all officials working in banks operating under RBI licence would be defined as public servants under Prevention of Corruption Act. The necessary mechanism has now been set up and corruption cases in these banks are being looked into.
By Ashwini Shrivastava New Delhi, Jun 26 (PTI) The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) can now probe allegations of corruption in private sector banks and against their employees. Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin told PTI the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given the necessary approval to the CVC on this. The move comes after the Supreme Court last year ruled that the chairman, managing directors and other officers of a private bank could be seen as public servants when it came to the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988. The anti-corruption watchdog is the statutory body which probes cases of graft involving central government departments, public sector organisations (including banks and insurance companies) and their employees. "The CVC can now also look into cases of corruption involving private sector banks and their managements like CMDs and MDs," Bhasin said. He said the RBI and the Department of Financial Services had recently approved the provisions in this regard. "The necessary mechanism has been put in place and cases of corruption in the private sector banks are now being looked into," Bhasin said. The apex court had said all officials working in banks operating under an RBI licence would be defined as public servants under the PC Act. 