Apparently employing a delaying tactic oft used by hardened criminals and politicians, six former sessions judges accused of misappropriating provident fund of subordinate staff of a Ghaziabad court, have en masse “taken ill” to avoid attending trial court proceedings.
They have all reported indisposed.
The judges, who have been charge-sheeted by CBI for committing a Rs6.58-crore fraud three years ago, are on bail.
CBI filed an application before a special judge on Wednesday seeking non-bailable warrants against RP Mishra, RP Yadav, RN Mishra, AK Singh, RS Chaubey, Arun Kumar and 75 other accused.
The scam was exposed after special CBI judge Rama Jain lodged a criminal case against 70 people on February 15, 2008. No judge was, however, named in that FIR.
Subsequent investigation by Uttar Pradesh Police led to the arrest of treasury officer Ashutosh Asthana, who named the judges who approved documents with forged signatures in the name of class-III and -IV staff. He also narrated the entire modus operandi of the scam.
In a sworn statement before a magistrate, Asthana revealed that the fraud ran from 2001 to 2007 in active connivance with the district judges. Every month, he said, he would pay Rs25,000 to Rs1.5 lakh in bribe to the judges after withdrawing money from the court treasury.
The bribes were given in the form of cash, school fees of the judges’ children, laptops and in one case beauty parlour expenses - manicure, pedicure, facial and massage - of a judge’s family.
The money was also used to buy a costly gift for a judge of the Allahabad high court, who was later elevated to the Supreme Court (SC).
Then chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan, who heads National Human Rights Commission and whose son and son-in-law are facing corruption charges, had absolved the accused SC judge, saying he had returned the cost of the gift.
In July last year, SC stayed trial of the six judges, including three of the Allahabad high court. It also rejected a CBI request to shift the case outside Delhi.
The extent of corruption can be gauged from the fact that a Ghaziabad judge once asked CBI to hand over case diaries to local police.
Key accused Asthana also died in mysterious circumstances while in judicial custody in Dasana Jail. This prison is infamous for frequent deaths of accused involved in sensitive cases.
