(
Reproduced from Times of India September 10, 2008
page 15)
Cash-in-bag:
CBI can grill 2 HC judges
Vishal Sharma | TNN
Chandigarh: Is it judgment time for
judges everywhere? Chief Justice of India K G
Balakrishnan, after recommending the impeachment of
Calcutta high court judge Soumitra Sen, dropped
another bombshell on Tuesday by allowing the CBI to
question two judges of the Punjab and Haryana high
court who have been linked to what has now come to be
known as the “cash-in-the-bag’’
scandal.
The scam erupted when
a packet containing Rs 15 lakh in cash sent by
now-arrested Haryana additional advocate general
Sanjeev Bansal landed at the door of Justice
Nirmaljit Kaur on August 13. The judge said she
didn’t know why Bansal’s clerk Parkash Ram
had brought it. Things got murky when it was revealed
that the money could have been meant for another
woman judge with the same first name, Nirmal Yadav.
The CJI’s
go-ahead to the CBI to “question’’ the
two judges came after the agency had petitioned him
saying it felt “tied down and
frustrated’’ in the absence of a direct
version from the duo.
Key accused in cash-in-bag scandal still on run
Chandigarh: The cash-in-the-bag scam involving a
Punjab and Haryana high court judge was first handled
rather shoddily by the Chandigarh police before the
CBI took over on August 26. On the same day, CJI K G
Balakrishnan had constituted a three-judge panel to
look into the scandal that had tongues wagging about
judicial corruption. The panel has complete liberty
to probe the case.
Sources said the CBI
had expected the nod to come last week but because
the CJI had already formed the panel, following a
detailed report from Punjab and Haryana HC Chief
Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, the agency had remained
apprehensive about the green signal. One of the key
players in the episode is absconding Delhi
businessman Ravinder Singh. The hotelier, said to be
close to judges in many states, allegedly has a
well-oiled network in the higher judiciary and has
been on the run since Haryana additional advocate
general Sanjeev Bansal, in a statement to the police,
had revealed that it was Singh who had asked him to
deliver the money to one of the judges. TNN
Latest
on this site ... This website informs of actions by
Rogue Police in India.