CBI court acquits former HC judge Nirmal Yadav in cash-at-judge’s-door case
A CBI court here today acquitted former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice (Retd) Nirmal Yadav and four others in the sensational 2008 “cash at judge’s door” case as the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.
The court of Special CBI judge Alka Malik pronounced the verdict, which was kept reserved on Thursday.
Talking to the media after her acquittal, Justice Yadav said she had full faith in the judiciary. The other accused who have been acquitted are hotelier Ravinder Singh, Rajiv Gupta, Nirmal Singh and Sanjiv Bansal, a former Haryana Additional Advocate General who had died during the trial.
The case against Justice Yadav had originated when a bag containing Rs 15 lakh was allegedly wrongly delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, another sitting judge of the high court, on August 13, 2008. The prosecution had alleged that the bag was meant for Justice Yadav but due to the similarity in the names of the two judges, it mistakenly reached Justice Kaur’s residence. The Chandigarh Police had registered an FIR on August 16, 2008. Amrik Singh, a peon working at the residence of Justice Kaur, had told the police that one Parkash Ram came to Justice Kaur’s house with a plastic bag in his hand on August 13, 2008, and informed him that “papers had come from Delhi to be delivered to Justice Kaur”.
On being directed by Justice Kaur, he opened the bag, which was found containing currency notes. Parkash was detained and handed over to the police. The case was initially investigated by the police and then referred by the UT Administration to the CBI on August 26, 2008.
Upon completion of the investigation, a chargesheet was filed on April 18, 2011. In the chargesheet, the CBI alleged that Ravinder was to send Rs 15 lakh to Justice Yadav, which he handed over to Sanjiv Bansal at his hotel in Delhi.
When Bansal was on his way to Chandigarh from Delhi, he rang up his wife and asked her to send Rs 15 lakh kept at their house to Justice Yadav’s residence through his munshi Parkash.
The CBI alleged that Parkash was handed over a packet for being delivered to “Nirmal ji” and it inadvertently reached the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur.
The prosecution had cited 84 witnesses, but only 69 were examined. Twentysix of them didn’t toe the line of the prosecution. The high court later allowed the prosecution to examine additional witnesses. After hearing the arguments, the court acquitted all the accused of the charges framed against them.
