Day after retirement, HC judge faces CBI charges

A day after the retirement of justice Nirmal Yadav from the Uttrakhand High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed charges in connection with her alleged involvement in the cash-in-bag scam that had rocked the entire judiciary in 2008.
 
The CBI filed the charges in the morning before the special judge Ritu Tagore of the designated CBI court in Chandigarh. The agency has charged justice Yadav under sections 11 & 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), section 120B of the Indian Penal Code and for destruction of evidence.

Importantly, the charges against justice Yadav have been filed by the premier investigating agency after getting sanction from the President of India. The CBI was waiting for the prosecution sanction for more than 6 months.
 
In December 2009, the CBI had filed closure report in this case against justice Yadav on the grounds of "denial of prosecution sanction" before the CBI court. However, the then special CBI judge Darshan Singh had turned down the CBI request and directed the agency to re-investigate the matter.

Since then, the CBI was seeking prosecution sanction from the centre for revival of the case by deciding to get to the bottom of the irregular purchase of land in Solan by justice Yadav and a large number of her kin.
 
The case had rocked the entire judiciary in August 2008, when a bag containing Rs15 lakh in cash was "wrongly delivered" at the residence of justice Nirmaljit Kaur, following which she reported the matter to the police. The money was allegedly delivered by Parkash Ram, a clerk of former Haryana additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal, the prime accused in the case.
 
Later, it was found that money was meant for another judge, Nirmal Yadav. Justice Yadav was later transferred from the Punjab and Haryana high court to the Uttarakhand high court.

When the matter was investigated by the CBI, it was found that Justice Nirmal Yadav required Rs15 lakh on 13 August 2008 for financing the purchase of 11.01 bighas of land at village Rihun, Pargana Baholi of Solan District in Himachal Pradesh. It was also discovered that the Rs15 lakh delivered mistakenly at the doorstep of justice Kaur was actually meant for justice Yadav for payments to be made towards the land deal.

Even an in-house panel set up by the Supreme Court had found that justice Yadav tried to hide her identity along with her relatives' by irregular execution of documents with a view to get over the prohibition laid down for registration of land to non-agriculturists and non-residents of Himachal Pradesh.