Chandigarh, August 8
In what could increase difficulties for Justice Nirmal Yadav in cash-at-judge’s- door scam, advocate Sanjiv Bansal has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying the money was meant for her only, and he was just acting as a courier boy.

Bansal is seeking the quashing of the FIR qua him. The petition, filed in the High Court Registry, has been returned to Bansal with some objections; and is to be filed again.

The scam had surfaced in August 2008 after another judge with similar name - Justice Nirmaljit Kaur - called in the cops immediately after a bagful of money was erroneously delivered at her house.

Justice Yadav’s name subsequently surfaced in the case as the alleged intended recipient of Rs 15 lakh.

A case in the matter was registered initially by the Chandigarh Police. The investigation was later handed over to the CBI. A three-judge committee was also constituted by the then Chief Justice of India to look into the matter.

The CBI, in its report, had asserted that “Justice Nirmaljit Kaur had nothing to do with the delivery of the cash”; and the money had, in effect, been demanded by Justice Nirmal Yadav. The investigating agency had categorically asserted that Delhi businessman Ravinder Singh gave a bag containing Rs 15 lakh to Bansal for delivering it to Justice Yadav.

The CBI’s findings find an echo in Bansal’s petition. Available information suggests that Bansal has in his petition claimed that the money was handed over to him by Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh. It was for the Solan land deal and his role in the entire controversy was nothing more than that of a courier boy.

The petition also indicates that the CBI, instead of going deep into the Solan land deal, had focused its attention on the judiciary. Bansal, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue.

The petition comes at a time when former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Nirmal Yadav, too is seeking the quashing of the prosecution sanction order dated March 1.