New Delhi: Responding to reports of a fire at the official residence of a Delhi High Court judge sometime before midnight on 14 March, Delhi police field officers were perplexed upon learning about ‘jute sacks filled with cash’ inside a storeroom on the premises.
Unsure of how to proceed, they immediately informed their senior—Devesh Kumar Mahla, Deputy commissioner of Police (DCP), New Delhi district. But in the absence of any clear instructions on whether to secure the scene or not, they left the official bungalow at the insistence of the judge’s personal secretary, ThePrint has learnt.
The three-member panel constituted by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to probe the matter now plans to summon the DCP to seek an explanation as to why the government bungalow at 30, Tughlak Crescent, was left unattended.
ThePrint sent a questionnaire to DCP Devesh Kumar Mahla but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
“It is correct that the DCP was informed about the cash that night itself. But it was conveyed to the HQ only around 8 am the next day. Ideally, instructions should have been given to prepare a panchnama, secure the spot; even if seizure wasn’t made, personnel should have been at the scene all night to make sure it is not tampered with,” said a police source.
The source explained that the next logical step would have been to rope in the Income Tax (IT) department, “but none of it was done because it was the residence of a judge, not just any businessman, and the PS (personal secretary) who is also considered to be a judicial officer asked the personnel to leave and said he would call them if needed”.
“Moreover, the judge himself was not at home,” the source added.
Delhi police personnel present at the spot left after being told by officials from the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) electricity department that a short circuit had caused the fire, and since there was no damage to life. “By the next morning, the scene was completely tampered with as all the debris was cleaned,” a second source said, adding that the field officers did as they were told since it was an “unprecedented situation”.
“They did whatever they thought was right. There were no instructions from their seniors, which they will explain in the inquiry to the judges,” said the second source.
The field officers in question, including the station house officer (SHO) of Tughlak Road police station, have submitted their phones containing video and photographic evidence collected from Justice Varma’s residence.
Details of messages they sent to their seniors on the night of the incident, along with their detailed statements, have also been collected by the Delhi Police top brass, it is learnt.
Police sources added that more than 25 eyewitnesses including police personnel, high court staffers, CRPF personnel part of the judge’s security, firefighters and NDMC officials have also been asked to submit their phones for analysis since they too recorded videos.
The matter of ‘jute sacks filled with cash’ being found inside a storeroom on the premises is being probed by a three-member committee comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice Anu Sivaraman, a judge of the Karnataka High Court.
On Tuesday, members of the committee visited the government bungalow allotted to Justice Varma where the fire broke out. Earlier on Wednesday, DCP Devesh Kumar Mahla too visited 30, Tughlak Crescent, and was there for a couple of hours.
According to the sequence of events, as narrated by documents made public by the Supreme Court, the call to the Delhi police control room (PCR) was made by Justice Yashwant Varma’s personal secretary, who was alerted by a house help around 11.43 pm that night. The Delhi Fire Service was simultaneously roped in by the PCR, and a dozen firefighters arrived at the scene. They were followed by a team of five Delhi police field officers led by the SHO, Tughlak Road police station.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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