Bhubaneswar, Jan. 1 -- Bhubaneswar: Despite State Vigilance terming the IFS Abhay Pathak arrest a prized catch, the weak point of Odisha Vigilance continued. In the year 2020, the conviction rate in the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) in Odisha dropped to a new low.

When over the years (2015-19) it has been observed that in more than half of the cases made out under the PCA - 1988, the accused in Odisha managed to secure honourable acquittals from the courts of law. The saga continued in 2020.

Sample this. The conviction rate, which means sentencing the accused as guilty in judicial courts, had hovered between 43 -48 per cent for the period between 2015-2019. The rate in 2019 was 48.6 per cent, which tumbled down to 46% in 2020.

The...