Chandigarh: Seventeen years after a cash-at-judge door case rocked the judiciary, a special CBI court here on Saturday acquitted former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice (Retd) Nirmal Yadav and four others in the matter.
In the sensational case, a packet containing Rs 15 lakh was allegedly wrongly delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, another sitting high court judge, on August 13, 2008. It was alleged that the cash was meant for Justice Yadav as a bribe to influence a property deal.
The Court of Special CBI judge Alka Malik pronounced the verdict on Saturday.
Defence counsel Vishal Garg Narwana said the court acquitted former Justice Yadav and four others. There were a total of five accused in the case, one of whom died during the trial.
“Today, the court has passed the judgement in the matter. Justice (Retd) Nirmal Yadav has been acquitted. False allegations have been levelled against her,” Narwana told reporters here.
A detailed order is awaited.
Advocate B S Riar, counsel for accused Rajiv Gupta and Sanjeev Bansal, said, “Yes, it took 17 years for this judgment, but that was not the fault of the defense councils. The delay was on the part of the CBI, as they kept seeking permissions from the high court and bringing in different witnesses at different times. The important thing is that justice has finally been served. We are relieved that, even though it was delayed, the right decision was made in the end.”
The court on Thursday had heard the final arguments in the case registered against Justice Yadav by the Central Bureau of Investigation and posted the pronouncement of the verdict for March 29.
The names of Sanjiv Bansal, former Additional Advocate General, Haryana, Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh, city-based businessman Rajiv Gupta and another person had also surfaced in the case. One of the accused, Sanjiv Bansal, died of an illness in February 2017.
The matter was reported to the Chandigarh Police, following which an FIR was registered in the matter. However, the case was later transferred to the CBI.
Delhi HC judge controversy
The verdict comes amid the raging row over the discovery of “four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes” at the Lutyens residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma following a fire incident on March 14.
A three-member in-house committee formed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna is investigating the matter. Justice Varma has denied any knowledge of the cash discovered.
After her name cropped up in the cash-at-judge door case, Justice Yadav was transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court.
In December 2009, the CBI filed a closure report in the case, which was rejected by the CBI court in March 2010 and ordered a reinvestigation.
After the CBI sought sanction to prosecute Justice Yadav, the then chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted the same in November 2010.
The office of the President of India approved the prosecution sanction in March 2011.
The CBI on March 4, 2011, charge-sheeted Justice Nirmal Yadav, who was then a judge in the Uttarakhand High Court, on the day of her retirement.
She had been transferred from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in November 2009.
On January 18, 2014, the special CBI court framed charges against Justice Yadav in the case after the Supreme Court dismissed her plea for a stay on the proceedings of the trial court.
The CBI had held that Justice Yadav had committed an offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
During the course of the trial, as many as 69 of 84 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. In the 17-year trial period, several judges heard the case.
