India-Forums.TV

[nahia]

CHANDIGARH: A day after the retirement of Justice Nirmal Yadav from the Uttrakhand High Court, the CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet in connection with her alleged involvement in the cash-in-bag scam that had rocked the entire judiciary in 2008.

The chargesheet was filed by the CBI on Friday morning at around 11.30 before the special judge Ritu Tagore of the designated CBI court. In the charge sheet, CBI has charged Justice Yadav under section 11 & 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), section 120B of IPC and for destruction of evidence.

Importantly, the charge sheet against Justice Yadav has been filed by the premier agency after getting sanction from the President of India. The CBI was waiting for the prosecution sanction for the last more than 6 months.

Earlier in December 2009, CBI had filed closure report in this case against Justice Yadav on the grounds "denial of prosecution sanction" before the CBI court. However, the then special CBI judge, Darshan Singh had turned down the CBI request and directed the agency to re-investigate the matter. Since then the CBI was seeking prosecution sanction from the centre for revival of the case by deciding to get to the bottom of the irregular purchase of land in Solan by Justice Yadav and a large number of her kin.

The case had rocked the entire judiciary in August 2008, when a bag full containing Rs 15 lakh in cash was "wrongly delivered" at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, following which she reported the matter to the police. The money was allegedly delivered by Parkash Ram, a clerk of former Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal, the prime accused in the case.

Later it was found that money was meant for another judge, Nirmal Yadav. Justice Nirmal Yadav was later transferred from Punjab and Haryana High Court to the Uttarakhand High Court.

When the matter was investigated by the CBI, it was found that Justice Nirmal Yadav required Rs 15 lakh on August 13, 2008 for financing the Purchase of 11.01 bighas of land at village Rihun, Pargana Baholi of Solan District in Himachal Pradesh. It was also discovered that the cash Rs 15 lakh delivered mistakenly at the doorstep of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur was actually meant for Justice Yadav for payments to be made towards the land deal.

Even an in-house panel set up by the Supreme Court (SC) had also found that Justice Yadav tried to hide her identity along with her relatives' by irregular execution of documents with a view to get over the prohibition laid down for registration of land to non-agriculturists and non-residents of Himachal Pradesh.