Cash at judge’s house: Cops visit Justice Varma’s house

A team of the Delhi Police on Wednesday visited the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court as part of an in-house inquiry initiated by a three-judge panel formed by the Chief Justice of India.

The inquiry was ordered after the discovery of a half-burnt pile of cash in the outhouse in the judge’s residence following a fire on March 14.

‘Legislature, judiciary not pitted against each other’

• RS Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said the legislature, executive and judiciary were not pitted against each other and they had to function in tandem with checks and balances.
• A day after meeting floor leaders of various parties to discuss judicial accountability and other issues surrounding the controversy over recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, Dhankhar said it was a very fruitful interaction.

According to sources, the police team, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Devesh Mahla, arrived at Justice Varma’s house around 1.50 pm and remained there for approximately two hours. The police team consisted of a dozen officers, including the DCP and an Assistant Commissioner of Police. They entered Justice Varma’s residence along with a videographer to conduct their investigation.

The sources said in order to reconstruct the events, the police team questioned various individuals including staff and security personnel, who were present at the time of the incident and the subsequent firefighting efforts that led to the alleged discovery of the cash stash in the outhouse.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to urgently take up a PIL seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to register an FIR against Justice Yashwant Varma following allegations of discovery of a semi-burnt stash of cash at his residence during a fire incident on March 14.