Vigilance Dept arrests 26 in year 2025
Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 31 Dec: Director Vigilance Dr V Murugesan held a press conference at the Vigilance Establishment Headquarters here today where he asserted that a zero tolerance policy against corruption has delivered positive results during the year 2025. The briefing was also attended by SSP Vigilance Headquarters Prahlad Narayan Meena and SP Vigilance Dehradun Sector Swatantra Kumar Singh. The media was briefed during the press conference on the actions taken by the Uttarakhand Vigilance Establishment during the year 2025 under the state government’s zero-tolerance policy against corruption.
Murugesan shared that, in the year 2025, the Vigilance Establishment conducted 21 trap operations, resulting in the red-handed arrest of 26 accused officials from various departments, including 6 gazetted and 20 non-gazetted officers, while they were accepting bribes totalling Rs 5.94 lakhs. He added that continuing this momentum throughout the year, the department acted swiftly on complaints received via the toll-free number 1064, leading to 14 cases in which 17 accused persons from different departments were caught red-handed. Consequently, Director Vigilance announced cash rewards for each successful operational team.
He further shared that the Vigilance Establishment successfully disposed of a total of 28 cases in 2025, comprising 5 open enquiries, 2 investigations and 21 trap cases. Furthermore, through intelligence gathering in 20 cases, reports were sent to the government for initiating open enquiries and registering cases regarding disproportionate assets. Due to effective prosecution by the establishment over the past year, convictions were secured in 3 out of 6 corruption cases brought before the court.
Murugesan added that the toll-free number 1064 and the official website received a total of 2,209 complaints in 2025. Out of these, 470 pertained to vigilance matters, while 1,739 were non-vigilance in nature. From the vigilance-related complaints, 14 resulted in trap actions, and 2 cases were forwarded to the government for open enquiries. Additionally, 83 complaints were directed to the government or to the departments concerned for necessary action. To support complainants, a revolving fund has been established at the government level to refund trap money. Under this process, a total amount of Rs 2.475 lakhs has been returned to 15 complainants so far, including 10 from Dehradun and 5 from the Haldwani Sector.
Outlining the future roadmap, the Director, Vigilance, stated that the department aims to ensure the speedy disposal of cases pending for over a year. Plans are also in place to provide specialised training to Vigilance Establishment staff in coordination with central investigative agencies. To foster public awareness against corruption, extensive programmes and seminars will be organised across educational, government, and semi-government institutions in collaboration with appointed nodal officers. Furthermore, an appeal was made to residents of hill districts to come forward and report corruption by contacting the 24×7 helpline number 9456592300.
