Chandigarh/New Delhi: The CBI will investigate the 'cash-at-judge door' scam in Chandigarh even as Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan constituted a three-judge committee to go into it. "The CBI has conveyed its acceptance to investigate the case," a Chandigarh Police press release said.
The case was transferred following a recommendation from Chandigarh Administrator S F R Rodrigues, who is also the Punjab Governor, after consultations with High Court Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur.
The release said that the case has been referred to the CBI for "further investigations" by the Chandigarh administration as it has inter-state and multi-dimensional implications. The scam had come to light when on August 13, the clerk of the then Additional Advocate General of Haryana Sanjiv Bansal, had delivered Rs 15 lakh at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, who informed the Chandigarh police about it.
It was later said that the cash was delivered at a 'mistaken address'. But Justice Nirmal Yadav recused from work in the court and went on leave. Bansal later resigned as Additional Advocate General and a case under Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the clerk, Parkash Chand and Rajiv Gupta, a property dealer. The main accused Ravinder Singh, a Delhi-based hotelier is absconding.
Bansal had claimed that the money was to be delivered at the residence of a property dealer Nirmal Singh on behalf of Ravinder Singh in connection with a property deal but the cash was wrongly delivered at the residence of a Judge. "The inquiry by committee will not come in the way of police investigation," the sources said.
They said if the Committee finds substance in the allegation, the CJI on the basis of its report can ask the judge concerned to resign or withdraw judicial work and recommend to Prime Minister and President for the impeachment.
Meanwhile, the Committee constituted as in-house mechanism by the Supreme Court Chief Justice will have Justice Hemant Lakshman Gokhle (Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court), Justice K S Radhakrishnan (Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court) and Justice Madan B Lokur (Delhi High Court) as members.
"After receiving a report from Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the CJI constituted the committee comprising two chief justices and a judge of the High Court as he felt that deeper probe was needed in the alleged scam," apex court sources said.
Justice Thakur had also met CJI and discussed the matter in which the name of a sitting judge has surfaced in the scam, the sources said. He said no deadline has been fixed for the submission of the report and the inquiry by the committee will not come in the way of the investigation of the case by the police. (PTI)
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