In response to claims that wads of burnt currency were found and removed during a fire at his residence on the night of March 14-15, Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma has said that his staff who went to the scene after the blaze were not shown any remnants of cash there. “When the fire broke out around midnight, the fire service was alerted by my daughter and my private secretary, whose calls would be duly recorded. During the exercise to douse the fire, all staff and the members of my household were asked to move away from the scene of the incident in view of safety concerns. After the fire was doused and when they went back to the scene of the incident, they saw no cash or currency on site,” he said in a response to Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya. “None of the staff was shown any remnants of cash or currency that may have been present on site. I have made my own enquiries from the staff present who have also stated that there was no 'removal' of currency which was allegedly found at the site or removed from the premises. The only thing which was cleared was debris and what they considered to be salvageable. That is still present in the house and can be seen kept apart in one part of the residence,” his letter to the HC Chief Justice said. Justice Varma also said that the incident “clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign” him. A day after the Supreme Court Collegium on March 20 proposed the transfer of Justice Varma, a Delhi High Court judge, following an adverse report about the discovery of cash at his residence, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had asked High Court Chief Justice Upadhyaya to seek a written explanation from him. CJI Khanna asked CJ Upadhyay to ask Justice Varma: “How does he account for the presence of money/cash in the room located in his premises. Explain the source of money/cash which was found in the said room”, and “who is the person who had removed the burnt money/cash from the room in the morning of March 15?” The CJI also asked the High Court CJ to request Justice Varma not to dispose of his mobile phones or delete or modify any conversation, messages or data. “Please also ascertain the details of the official staff of the High Court Registry, the personal security officers and the security guards who are posted at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma during the last six months. Request letter may be sent to the mobile service provider(s) for providing call record details of the official or other mobile phone number(s) of Justice Yashwant Varma for the last six months,” the CJI’s communication said. Justice Varma, in his response, said the store room in question “was generally utilised by all and sundry to store articles such as unused furniture, bottles, crockery, mattresses, used carpets, old speakers, garden implements as well as CPWD material. This room is unlocked and accessible both from the official front gate as well as the backdoor of the staff quarters. It is disconnected from the main residence and is surely not a room in my house as has been portrayed and suggested in the.. news reports.” The judge said that he and his wife were travelling in Madhya Pradesh when the fire occurred and they returned to Delhi only on March 15 evening. “What baffles me is the complete absence of any sacks of allegedly burnt currency which were ever recovered or seized. We categorically assert that neither my daughter, PS nor household staff were shown these so-called sacks of burnt currency,” he wrote. Referring to the video clip purportedly of the blaze, Justice Varma wondered why the cash, if any, was not seized. “Assuming without admitting that the video was taken immediately at the time of the incident at the site, none of it appears to have been recovered or seized.” “I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous. The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous. It is a room which is completely disassociated from my living areas and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that outhouse,” he wrote. Justice Varma said that when the HC CJ showed him the video clip for the first time, he was “totally shocked to see the contents… since that depicted something which was not found on site as I had seen it”. He added that this had prompted him “to observe that this clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign” him and that “it also lends credence to my firm belief that the entire incident is part of a sequence of events which occurred in the recent past, including the unfounded allegations that circulated on social media in December 2024…” He said that “in the life of a judge, nothing matters more than reputation and character. That has been severely tarnished and irreparably damaged. The baseless allegations that have been levelled against me have proceeded on mere innuendos and an unproven assumption that the cash allegedly seen and found belonged to me.” Justice Varma added that he “would be grateful if an enquiry is made with respect to my functioning as a judge”.
