Mystery of Rs 15L remains unsolved in cash-at-judge’s door case

Even though a CBI court in Chandigarh has acquitted all accused, including Justice (retd ) Nirmal Yadav in the cash-at-judge’s door case, but the mystery regarding the Rs 15 lakh seized by the CBI during the investigation 17 years ago remains unsolved.

The CBI had registered the case after Parkash Ram, a clerk of Sanjiv Bansal ,then Additional Advocate-General, Haryana, had arrived at the residence of a then sitting Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Nirmaljit Kaur on August 13, 2008, with a plastic bag in his hand. When the bag was opened it was found containing currency notes. On the direction of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur the police were called and a Sub-Inspector of the Chandigarh Police took Prakash Ram into custody, along with the bag brought by him.

The Station House Officer of Sector 11 police station, Ramesh Chand Sharma, seized the bag and counted the notes, which totalled Rs 15 lakh. After registering the case on August 16, 2008, by the Chandigarh Police, the Chandigarh Administration handed over the investigation to the CBI on August 26, 2008. Along with all documents, the money was also handed over by the Chandigarh Police to the CBI and the cash is still lying in the malkhana of the CBI.

Upon completion of the investigation, the CBI claimed in the charge-sheet that the bag was meant for Justice Yadav, but due to the similarity in the names of the two judges, it was mistakenly delivered at Justice Kaur’s residence. The CBI in the charge-sheet had alleged that accused Ravinder Singh gave the money to Sanjiv Bansal to be delivered to Justice Nirmal Yadav for giving a favourable judgment in a property matter.

However, all accused claimed that the CBI had falsely implicated them in the case. Hitesh Puri, one of the defence counsel, said that the charge-sheet was filed on the basis of fabricated evidence and the CBI court had also rapped the CBI for fabricating the evidence against the accused. Puri said that from the first day of the trial they had been saying that the case was false.

The CBI had neither named Parkash Ram as witness, nor accused in the case, who had wrongly delivered Rs 15 lakh to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur. Puri said that it was only the CBI which knew to whom the amount belonged to as the court had found no link with the persons named in the charge-sheet filed in the case.

Chandigarh