Ex-HC judge’s complaint opens his can of worms: cops

Justice Gandhi told the police that he suspected that the call was part of a “conspiracy to sabotage” (the Commission’s report) and “tarnish” his “image”.

However, the report of a probe conducted by the Crime Branch of the J&K Police, accessed by The Indian Express, has concluded that Gandhi’s version did not match with facts. And that the “unknown caller” wasn’t unknown but “a front man for conducting most of the land and property related transactions on behalf of Justice R C Gandhi”. In fact, the caller, the report said, was a 12-year-old boy who was brought to Justice Gandhi’s house as a domestic servant and then grew to become his “front man” for several businesses and transactions.

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This report was submitted by IG, Crime, to J&K Police headquarters on June 6 last year.

When contacted, Justice Gandhi told The Indian Express that the report is “totally false”.

“This is manipulation by police. It is true that he (the unknown caller) was known to me. A known man was planted against me,’’ he said. “If they wanted to investigate it properly, why didn’t they go the path that I was telling them to take and check the source of the money, check where did so much money come to him”.

The police probe began when the Kishtwar panel’s secretary, wrote to Director General of J&K Police on November 15, 2014, that Justice Gandhi’s Personal Security Official (PSO) “Vijay Kumar had received a call on 14-11-2014 at about 6.15 pm from a caller who didn’t reveal his identity and enquired the whereabouts of the chairman (Justice Gandhi)”.

“The unknown caller,” the complaint said, told “the PSO that he is sending 2 crore rupees through his driver and wanted to find out from Justice Gandhi as to which place the money is to be delivered”.

Police Headquarters asked the Superintendent of Police (Operations) Jammu to investigate the case. On December 3, 2014, Justice Gandhi wrote to J&K DGP K Rajendra “that the person who had made the call to his PSO had admitted before the investigating officer and the investigation with regard to money and the source of the money is not being investigated”.

Justice Gandhi, as per the probe report, complained that “neither the caller nor his associate, who is a retired police officer, is being investigated nor is the motive being unearthed and it is apprehended that the persons associated with the conspiracy against the Commission are being let off.”

On December 26, 2014, Justice Gandhi again wrote to Rajendra: “The police is treating the culprit, who had made the call, as their guest and this way the game plan of sabotaging the Commission is not going to be unearthed”.

A preliminary investigation conducted by SP (Operations) Jammu established that the “unknown caller” was Anil Choudhary who was known to both Justice Gandhi and his PSO.

Choudhary admitted to having made the call but insisted that he had taken Rs 47 lakh from Justice Gandhi in 2009 and invested in real estate and that he was calling to return that money.

The J&K Police headquarters finally transferred the case to the Crime branch on December 30, 2014.

The Crime Branch investigated the case and claimed that “it has been proved beyond any shadow of doubt that the call…was not from any stranger but was made by Anil Choudhary, who is very well known, not only to Justice Gandhi but also his PSO Vijay Kumar for last more than 25 years.’’

The Crime Branch concluded that Gandhi’s allegation that Anil Choudhary was trying to sabotage the Commission of Inquiry on Kishtwar riots is “without any basis and justification”. “Anil Choudhary wanted to pay 2/3 crore (rupees) to Justice Gandhi is purely related to his business deals with him and not related to Commission of Inquiry,’’ the report says.

The report says that Choudhary was 12 years old when he was brought by Gandhi from his home in Nayabaas, Sampla, district Rohtak in Haryana to work as a domestic servant at his residence.

“..with the passage of time, (he) gained trust of Justice R C Gandhi that he provided him a shop in Indira Chowk area in a hotel “Yatri Hotel” – registered in name of Gandhi’s uncle – where he opened a phone booth and travel agency.

“The money earned from the STD/PCO and travel agency (by Choudhary) was shared by Justice Gandhi. The faith and trust of Justice Gandhi and Anil Choudhary was so deep that when the later started real estate business, (Gandhi) also invested his money and provided Rs 15 lakh through a cheque to him. Gandhi was paid double the amount just in six months which he reinvested and after several land deals earned 1.8 crore within a period of just fifteen/sixteen months,’’ the report says. “Justice Gandhi provided Anil Choudhary an additional Rs 2.2 crore (rupees) in cash making it Rs 4 crore (rupees) for further investment in real estate which till date is unsettled. It was in the backdrop of these transactions that rift started between the two”.

The report says that “during enquiry, Justice Gandhi in his statement has accepted that although Anil Choudhary owes him money, it is in lakhs and not crores”.

Subsequently, “relations between the two became strained,” the report says, and Justice Gandhi approached retired SSP Sheikh Mehmood for help who organised two meetings between them to negotiate a deal but failed. The report said that Gandhi “got annoyed” with Mehmood because “he couldn’t broke a deal between him (Gandhi) and Anil Choudhary”.

The Director General of J&K Police K Rajendra wasn’t available for a comment.

Meanwhile, Justice Gandhi commission’s final report, submitted to the state government in March last year, indicted former Minister of State for Home and National Conference leader Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, then IGP (Jammu), then DIG (Ramban-Doda-Kishtwar) and the then DC and SP of Kishtwar district.

It was contradictory to the commission’s earlier report — filed during NC-Congress rule in December 2013 — which cleared Kitchloo of all charges. The erstwhile Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led PDP-BJP government didn’t act on the report nor did the Governor during his three months rule.