Cash at judge’s door: 17 years later, CBI court acquits former Punjab and Haryana HC judge

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Justice Yadav said she had finally been vindicated. “Judiciary is really fair, of course it has taken a long time, maybe due to many reasons… but now it is done,” she said.

The case dates back to August 13, 2008, when Rs 15 lakh in cash was allegedly delivered at the residence of another then Punjab and Haryana HC judge, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, who is also retired now. It was alleged that the cash was meant for Justice Yadav, but was wrongly delivered at the other judge’s residence due to their similar-sounding names.

Justice Kaur informed the then HC Chief Justice and the police, following which a First Information Report (FIR) was registered on August 16, 2008. Ten days later, the case was transferred to the CBI, which registered a fresh FIR on August 28, 2008.

According to the CBI probe, the money was delivered by a clerk of former Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal, who allegedly called up Justice Kaur and said it had reached her residence by mistake. Bansal died of an illness in February 2017.

Besides Justice Yadav and Bansal, the others named in the case were Ravinder Singh Bhasin, Rajiv Gupta and Nirmal Singh.

In January 2009, the CBI sought sanction to prosecute Justice Yadav. This was granted in November 2010, and approved by the President of India in March 2011, following which the CBI filed a chargesheet the same month.

After her name cropped up in the case, Justice Yadav was transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court. She retired in March 2011.

On January 18, 2014, the special CBI court framed charges against her after the Supreme Court dismissed her plea for a stay on the trial court’s proceedings. The CBI had held that Justice Yadav had committed an offence punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

During the trial, the CBI argued that there was circumstantial evidence against Justice Yadav. It claimed to have recovered a pen drive which contained an affidavit that mentioned details of the transaction.

Denying the allegations, Justice Yadav’s counsel, Advocate Vishal Garg Narwana, had argued that several CBI witnesses did not support the prosecution’s claim, and those who did had several contradictions in their statements.

On Saturday, Justice Yadav said: “I was confident that I have not done anything wrong… I have faith in the judicial system… if the proceedings have been slow, I cannot do anything.” She said she “regrets” that “for so many years, I could not do anything better in life”.

“Nothing came to my house, I did not demand anything. I heard a case in March, do you think that somebody would send me money in August,” she said.

“Whatever happened and whosoever did it, I don’t want to get into that… it was my bad luck,” she said. Asked if she felt it was a conspiracy against her, Justice Yadav said, “My friends used to say it was a conspiracy, and I would have gone far… I had a bright future in service and post-service also. After retirement, I could have done something in politics too…”

“My father was an MLA… He always told me to be honest. When my honesty was questioned, it hurt me,” she said.

During the course of the trial, 69 of 84 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. In February this year, the HC allowed the CBI to re-examine 10 witnesses within four weeks, and asked the trial court to ensure that no unnecessary adjournments were granted.