Punjab judge, magistrate in CBI net

Gupta, it is learnt, was transferred to Jalandhar about a year back from Sangrur and was due to be promoted in a couple of months as a high court judge. Jalandhar Bar Association sources said there had been a number of complaints against him.

Bhardwaj was caught red-handed, according to the CBI, while accepting Rs 7 lakh as bribe, allegedly on the behalf of Gupta at his residence in Sector 22-A around 6:30 pm yesterday. The CBI had also raided the Sector 8 residence of Gupta and taken him into custody.

The two judicial officers are said to have come in contact when Bhardwaj was posted in Jalandhar three years ago, and since then, allege CBI sources, Bhardwaj had been operating as a conduit for Gupta.

The CBI acted following a complaint by Gurwinder Singh Samra, a resident of Kartarpur and an alleged quack at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital there, who had complained that the local police had registered a number of ‘fake’ cases against him. In some of these, he had managed to obtain bail from Punjab and Haryana High Court but fresh cases were registered. Singh told CBI that in desperation he turned to Bhardwaj who told him he would get his problems solved with the help of Gupta and senior police officers of the district if he paid an amount of Rs 11 lakh. He told Singh he would pass this on to Gupta.

Later, the two, Singh alleged, asked him to file an anticipatory bail application in the court of the sessions judge on May 9 and promised interim relief. He was asked to pay Rs 7 lakh as the first instalment on May 10 and the rest of the amount on confirmation of the bail. The sessions judge granted conditional bail to the complainant on May 10 and fixed the next date of hearing for May 15.

Singh complained to the regional office of the CBI in Chandigarh who verified his complaint, obtained permission from the Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court, and then laid the trap. On Saturday evening, Singh, along with CBI officials and a team of independent witnesses, landed at Bhardwaj’s residence with Rs 7 lakh — in denominations of 1,000 and 500 packed in two sweet boxes. Bhardwaj accepted the boxes and began counting the currency notes which had been coated with a chemical. The CBI then nabbed him and got his hands washed which turned red owing to the chemical.

Dev Raj, Deputy Manager Vigilance (FCI), Madan Lal, Deputy Manager (FCI), and L R Roojam, District and Sessions Judge (Vigilance), Punjab and Haryana High Court, acted as independent witnesses. CBI SP R S Bhatti got a complaint registered with the Chandigarh police against Bhardwaj today on the charge of escaping from custody under Section 224 IPC. The CBI have already registered a case — RC-14-(A) 2003/CBI/CHD dated May 10, 2003 — on charges of corruption against both judicial officers.

Meanwhile, in Jalandhar, raids at Gupta’s residence were continuing today and some important documents are said to have been sealed by the CBI team. Among them were files of various recent decisions given by him. Some bank papers, diaries and mobile numbers are also said to have been found.

As in Chandigarh, there were independent witnesses during the raid. These included Superintendent, postal department, Chhota Singh, PRO, postal department, Sushil Kumar and PRO, BSNL, B N Gupta.

Last month when high court judge Kiran Lal Anand ahd visited the bar association, senior advocate Surjit Singh Sood had made allegations against Gupta and agreed to give an affidavit in this regard. He repeated this to The Indian Express today on his mobile.

Senior lawyers in Jalandhar today claimed that Bhardwaj, who belongs to Sunam in Sangrur district, didn’t have a very good reputation when he was functioning as Judicial Magistrate First Class cum Civil Judge Junior Division for three years.