Chandigarh, September 26
The three-Judge committee, constituted by the Chief Justice of India for looking into the cash-at-judge’s doorstep case, is apparently initiating its probe from the very first link for establishing the chain of events.
Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, on whose behest the first information report was registered by the Chandigarh police last month, is among the first ones the committee members will meet.
The panel is scheduled to arrive in the city on Sunday. Arrangements have been made for the stay of the committee members at the UT guest house.
It is learnt that the committee has sought the assistance of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to unravel the truth behind the scam that surfaced on August 13 after Haryana law officer Sanjeev Bansal’s clerk erroneously delivered Rs 15 lakh at her house.
A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), now looking into the case, has already taken Justice Nirmaljit Kaur’s help in the matter, as it was her clerk Amrik Singh who had formally submitted a complaint in the matter to the police.
The committee consists of Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale, Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice K.S Radhakrishnan and Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court.
Available information suggests Justice Gokhale committee, during its three-day visit to the city, will examine Justice Nirmal Yadav, whose name had surfaced in the statements of one of the accused in the case.
Already, Justice Nirmal Yadav has gone on leave after Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur took serious note of the scam. Justice Yadav is unlikely to have gone on leave voluntarily, whatever her claims.
The committee is also associating in its inquiry prime accused Sanjeev Bansal and his clerk, along with co-accused in the scam Ravinder Singh and Rajeev Gupta. Bansal is currently in judicial custody and his bail application is pending, while Ravinder Singh’s has been remanded in the CBI custody till Saturday.
Arrangements are being made to ensure their production before the committee by the CBI. It is believed that a special team of CBI from Delhi arrived in the city this morning to facilitate the probe by the committee.
The panel has been thought of by the CJI, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, as an internal mechanism to inquire into the serious charges of corruption that have come to the surface involving a judge of the high court. The members will be submitting their report to the CJI at the earliest possible.
