Inquiry panel confirms cash found at Justice Varma's house

NEW DELHI: The three-judge inquiry panel's damning report to CJI Sanjiv Khanna has confirmed that a huge amount of cash was found in a storeroom at Justice Yashwant Varma's Tughlaq Crescent residence on March 14, a finding that negates the judge's strenuous claim to the contrary.

The report repudiates Justice Varma's repeated statements claiming innocence about the discovery of money from a room within his official residence. Adhering to the principle of natural justice, CJI sent the report to the judge & sought his response within two days. The CJI, who retires on May 13, appears firm on taking the issue to its logical end.

In its lengthy report, the panel comprising Punjab and Haryana CJ Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh CJ G S Sandhawalia and Karnataka HC's Justice Anu Sivaraman unequivocally said a huge stash of cash was indeed found in a room on the premises of the judge's residence by the first responders to a fire incident there. The panel, which examined 50 witnesses, including Delhi Police commissioner, Delhi Fire Services chief and staff as well as securitymen deployed at his house, said most witnesses present at the site on March 14 confirmed that a portion of the cash stashed in the room had caught fire when Justice Varma was in Bhopal.

Report mentions 'mysterious disappearance of unburnt cash'

Sources said the probe panel report mentioned the mysterious disappearance of unburnt cash, as seen by security guards posted at judge Yashwant Varma's bungalow, from the room. Delhi HC CJ D K Upadhyay had also referred to the vanishing cash in his report to CJI Khanna on March 21.

When Justice Upadhyay had shown the video of burning cash in the storeroom to Justice Varma, the latter had "expressed apprehension about some conspiracy against him". The videos and photographs of burning cash, given to the Delhi HC CJ by the police commissioner, were handed over to CJI Khanna only on March 20, six days after the incident.

The Delhi HC CJ remained unconvinced by Justice Varma's defence and had told CJI Khanna that "the entire matter warrants a deeper probe". The CJI constituted the inquiry panel on March 22 and the SC collegium repatriated Justice Varma to Allahabad HC the same day with the instruction that he be not given any judicial work.

The inquiry panel also examined call data records of Justice Varma's phones. In his response, Justice Varma had said, "I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous." He had also said that after arriving from Bhopal on the evening of March 15, he had inspected the storeroom and found no cash there.

He persisted with the denial even when the video and photographs of burning cash were uploaded on the SC's official website. "I was totally shocked to see the contents of the video since that depicted something which was not found on site as I had seen it. It was this which prompted me to observe that this clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me," Justice Varma had said.