Patna: Bihar's Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) will intensify its crackdown on corrupt public servants in the year 2026.
To ensure swift trials and convictions in corruption cases, the Vigilance Bureau will soon constitute two new cells. The first cell will be dedicated to speedy trials, and the second to departmental proceedings.
The Vigilance Bureau will focus primarily on securing convictions for those accused of corruption by 2026.
Director General of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Jitendra Singh Gangwar told reporters that the first cell would handle everything from filing chargesheet to conducting quick hearing and ensuring witness testimonies, and legal proceedings in court. The second cell will be responsible for obtaining no-objection certificates from the relevant departments to prosecute corrupt government employees.
Both cells will be monitored by an officer of the IG rank. At the press conference, Gangwar also provided details of the actions taken by the Vigilance Bureau in 2025. According to him, the Vigilance Bureau took action in 122 corruption cases in 2025, including 101 cases of officials caught red-handed accepting bribes, 15 cases of disproportionate assets, and seven cases of corrupt misuse of office.
Gangwar stated that over the past 25 years, the Vigilance Bureau registered an average of 72-73 FIRs annually, while in 2025, the annual average increased to approximately 122.
He said that the highest number of FIRs, 20, were registered in December in 2025. In comparison, only 15 FIRs were registered in the previous year, 2024. This means that approximately eight times more cases were registered and acted upon in 2025 compared to 2024.
Gangwar stated that in 2025, 101 FIRs were registered in trap cases alone. As many as 107 corrupt public servants were caught red-handed accepting bribes. This included seven female officers and six middlemen.
This was possibly the first time in the history of the Vigilance Bureau that four separate trap operations were conducted in different districts on August 27 in 2025. Additionally, two more trap operations and one disproportionate assets case were registered on December 17 in 2025.
The Director General of Vigilance stated that in 2024, only two First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered in disproportionate assets cases. However, in 2025, cases were registered against 15 corrupt public servants for possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. The biggest case involves an executive engineer from the Building Construction Department, with assets worth Rs 2.74 crore. Cases were also registered against four officials from the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, three from the Rural Works Department, and two from the Police Department.
