New Delhi: A special CBI court in Chandigarh has acquitted retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav in a 17-year-old corruption case wherein Rs 15 lakh cash allegedly meant for her was instead delivered to the residence of another judge of the same court.
Yadav’s lawyer Vishal Garg Narwana confirmed the acquittal to ThePrint. “This acquittal after 17 years vindicates our longstanding argument that there was neither any demand of cash made by honourable retired Justice Nirmal Yadav, nor was any cash delivered to her. This order has come as a big relief to her and will help restore some of her lost reputation due to this case over the last 17 years,” Narwana said.
The verdict comes at a time when the spotlight is on the Justice Yashwant Varma controversy, after the alleged discovery of unaccounted-for cash at his residence after a fire on the night of 14 March. Varma’s transfer has since been approved from the Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court, but Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna has directed that he not be allocated any judicial work.
In the Justice Nirmal Yadav matter, the Chandigarh Police had registered an initial FIR on 16 August 2008. A peon at the residence of Nirmaljit Kaur, then a sitting judge at the Punjab and Haryana HC, had in his complaint to the police stated that a ‘munshi’ had come to the house with a plastic bag, saying the parcel had come from Delhi and was to be delivered.
According to court documents, Kaur (now retired) asked the peon to check the contents of the bag, and on seeing the cash, asked him to call the police and get the ‘munshi’ apprehended.
The then chief justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan was informed, and he set up a three-judge probe committee which included Justice H.L. Gokhale, then chief justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, then chief justice of Gujarat High Court, and Madan B. Lokur, then a Delhi HC judge.
The ‘munshi’ led the police to an officer of Sanjeev Bansal, who was Haryana additional advocate general at the time. It was found that the cash was allegedly meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav.
The in-house panel subsequently recorded statements of 19 witnesses, including those of Nirmal Yadav and Nirmaljit Kaur, and Bansal.
The panel further examined documents such as phone call data between Justice Yadav and a businessman Ravinder Singh, who had allegedly sent the money through Bansal.
After examining the witnesses and documents, the inquiry committee concluded that the cash delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav.
The CBI took over the case the same month and Justice Yadav was transferred to the High Court of Uttarakhand. She retired from service in March 2011. Bansal died in December 2016.
Special CBI judge Alka Malik concluded the hearing of arguments in the case Thursday. Justice Yadav pleaded not guilty.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Allahabad HC judges participate in VHP event, draw flak for ‘gross violation of secular principles’