CBI files chargesheet against judge in Chandigarh bribery scandal

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday filed a chargesheet against Justice Nirmal Yadav in a bribery scandal, dubbed the ‘cash-for-judge’ scam, that had rocked this city in August 2008.

Justice Yadav is posted at the Uttarakhand High Court. CBI Superintendent of Police R.D. Kalia had come from New Delhi to file the chargesheet.

The chargesheet against Yadav – for corruption, conspiracy, destroying evidence and creation of false evidence – was filed here in the court of CBI special judge Ritu Tagore.

The CBI has also filed a chargesheet against four other accused in the case. The next date of hearing is slated April 6.

President Pratibha Patil had given sanction for Justice Yadav’s prosecution last month.

Punjab and Haryana High Court was hit by the scam after a packet containing Rs.15 lakh (Rs.1.5 million) in cash was delivered Aug 13, 2008, at the Sector 11 residence of High Court Judge Nirmaljit Kaur. She complained to police registering an FIR.

Police later arrested then Haryana additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal, a property dealer Rajiv Gupta and Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh Bhasin in connection with the case.

Bansal and Gupta told the police the money was meant for another high court judge, Justice Yadav. They claimed another packet containing Rs.15 lakh was separately delivered to Yadav at her official residence in Sector 24 later.

Yadav went on leave after her name figured in the bribery scandal. She was later transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court.

The chargesheet was also filed against Bansal, Gupta, Bhasin and Nirmal Singh, who is a Delhi-based property dealer.