Scam mastermind claims to have paid for beauty treatment of judge’s family

Last week, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Central and the Uttar Pradesh governments on a petition seeking...

Last week, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Central and the Uttar Pradesh governments on a petition seeking an independent investigation into the Rs seven-crore provident fund scam in Ghaziabad district courts, allegedly involving 36 judges, including a sitting Supreme Court judge and 11 others from Allahabad and Uttarakhand high courts. A Bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, asked the Centre and state government’s Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home) to file their response by August 1 when the case would be taken up for further hearing.

The allegations pertaining to the swindling of money had first come to fore in January after hordes of court employees lodged anonymous complaints with the Ghaziabad district judge. Taking cognizance of the complaints, the judge had forwarded the letters to the Allahabad High Court, which deputed a 16-member team, headed by Special Judge Rama Jain as the vigilance officer, to probe into the matter.

The team had visited the district court and scanned through the records of the employees in the last week of January after which Jain submitted a detailed report, confirming the allegations of the fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasury.

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The report raised apprehensions of “a very big conspiracy to loot the public exchequer, as a part of which more than Rs 4 crore had been withdrawn in 2007 alone”. The High Court-appointed committee of the three judges endorsed Jain’s report and gave a go ahead to investigate the case.

Jain recorded her statement as the complainant and an FIR was lodged on February 15, naming Central Nazir (chief treasurer) Ashutosh Asthana as the mastermind of the scam. The case was registered under penal provisions pertaining to cheating, falsification of accounts, criminal breach of trust by public servants, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption.

Alleging that the scam took place during 2001-2008, the FIR named 82 persons, besides Asthana, including 13 class III court employees and 30 class IV court employees. Following a preliminary investigation, the police arrested Asthana on April 11. Seventy others were arrested as well.

Asthana recorded his statement and startled the police by alleging that 36 judges, who had acted as judicial officers in the Ghaziabad district courts, had benefitted from the ill-gotten money. He produced documents bearing signatures of all the judges and their families named by him. Swinging into action, the police got his statement recorded before a judge, as only then it could have a legal sanctity and admissibility as evidence in a court of law.

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On April 28, Asthana recorded his statement before Judicial Magistrate Dinesh Kumar, confessing not only his role in the scam but also reiterating his allegations.

Accepting his role in the scam, Asthana claimed that money used to be withdrawn from the PF accounts of the court employees years before their maturity with the consent of the then district judges, who used to sign the vouchers. He allegedly placed on record a large number of class III and class IV employees, who existed only on paper and bogus provident fund payments were made to them. The judges were aware of this, he claimed. He listed the names of the district judges who sanctioned withdrawal of money from the treasury and other judges who received household goods during the scam period.

Asthana’s confession named the shops from where the goods were purchased and the tour company which allegedly provided frequent travels to the judges and their families. His statement claimed that one high court judge was paid Rs two lakh for beauty treatments of his family members.

Meanwhile, Ghaziabad District Bar Association has moved the apex court claiming the scam is of Rs 23 crore and not Rs seven crore.

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In pursuant to the SC direction, Ghaziabad senior police officials have prepared a questionnaire to elicit responses from the judges named by Asthana.

Goods and benefits allegedly supplied by Asthana to judges:

•A fixed sum of money on a monthly basis (also for a judge’s daughter’s marriage)

•TV, fridge, ACs, laptops, mobile phones, washing machines, furniture, crockery, jewellery, clothes

• AC cars for travel

• Lighting and decoration for festivals

• Management course fee of a judge’s son

• Beauty treatments