The Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel formed to probe into cash discovery allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma has confirmed that a huge amount of cash was found in the judge’s residence, according to reports. The panel comprising Punjab and Haryana Chief Justice (CJ) Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh CJ GS Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court judge Justice Anu Sivaraman submitted its report to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, on Monday, May 5.
According to a Times of India report, the inquiry report contains damning evidence that money was found at the judge’s Tughlaq Crescent residence on March 14 by the fire services personnel. The panel had examined 50 witnesses, including the police and fire services personnel who were the first responders to the fire, Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora; DCP Devesh Mahala and Additional DCP (New Delhi district) Sumit Jha. The report has been sent to Justice Varma, and the CJI has sought his response in two days.
Delhi HC judge, Justice Varma is embroiled in a controversy surrounding the alleged discovery of a huge pile of burnt cash in the storeroom attached to his bungalow in Delhi after the fire brigade had gone there to douse a blaze on March 14. Justice Varma’s transfer from Delhi High Court to Allahabad HC, amid an in-house probe, was cleared by the Union government on March 28.
The CJI Khanna-led Supreme Court Collegium had earlier recommended that the Centre repatriate Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. It had said that the proposal for the transfer of Justice Varma, who is the second senior-most judge in the Delhi High Court, to his parent High Court, which is the Allahabad High Court, where he will be the ninth in seniority, is "independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure".
Justice Varma was taken off judicial work before being sent to the Allahabad HC. His shift to Uttar Pradesh came despite opposition from the bar associations in Lucknow and Allahabad. While Justice Varma has denied any wrongdoing, CJI Khanna constituted a 3-member committee in the last week of March to conduct an in-house inquiry.
(With IANS inputs)