Chandigarh44 minutes ago
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Justice (retd) Nirmal Yadav, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, is a key accused in the case.(File)
Hearing in Chandigarh CBI Court today in ‘Cash at Door’ bribery case involving Justice Nirmal Yadav, former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court. Statements of the accused under CrPC 313 are being recorded in the case. The statements of Delhi-Haryana businessman Ravinder Singh Bhasin have been recorded on November 19. At the same time, statements of others including Justice Yadav are to be recorded. Justice Yadav can get his statement recorded today. In this case registered in the year 2008, Special Judge of CBI Court Jagjit Singh has made it clear that the trial of this case will be completed by December 2022.
The hearing was fixed on October 10 for recording the statement of the accused under CrPC 313. However, the defense in the case has been continuously asking for dates. The court has said in its order that this case comes under the category of cases older than 10 years.
In such a situation, under the orders of the High Court, the case has to be disposed of by December this year. In the case, the court had asked the accused to record their statements under CrPC 313, while rejecting the CBI’s application to call about 20 witnesses again in the ‘box’. Many CBI witnesses had turned hostile in the case.
The bribe amount had accidentally reached the house of another woman judge, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur, after which the matter came to light.
Retired judge Nirmal Yadav was booked under Section 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the remaining four accused under various sections of IPC including criminal conspiracy. Former Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal has died among the accused. On the other hand, along with Justice Yadav, the case is going on against hotelier Ravinder Singh Bhasin of Haryana-Delhi, businessman Rajeev Gupta of Chandigarh and one Nirmal Singh.
Bribe was brought to the wrong judge’s house
A then woman judge of the High Court had mistakenly reached the house of Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur with Rs 15 lakh as bribe. According to the CBI case, this amount was for Justice Nirmal Yadav. Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur’s Peon Amrik Singh had given a complaint about this episode which took place on August 13, 2008. A person named Prakash Ram reached his house with this money in a plastic bag. He told Peon that some papers have come from Delhi which have to be delivered. Although there was a hefty amount in the bag. In view of the seriousness of the case, the investigation of the case was handed over to the Chandigarh CBI.
Initially, the complaint was lodged with the Sector 11 police station, but due to the high-profile nature of the case, the investigation was handed over to the CBI.
CBI filed charge sheet in 2011
The CBI said after investigation that a criminal case is made out against Justice Nirmal Yadav and others. When the CBI filed a charge sheet against Justice Nirmal Yadav in March 2011, she was a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court. He was transferred from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the year 2009 after the bribery scandal. The Supreme Court reprimanded Justice Yadav for causing delay in the trial while rejecting his application to stay the trial. Earlier, the High Court had rejected his demand. In January 2014, the CBI court had framed charges against the accused. Sanjeev Bansal had died during the trial.