Accused Ghaziabad judges again fall sick, skip provident funds cam hearing

Ghaziabad sessions judges RP Yadav, RP Mishra, RN Mishra, RS Chaubey, Arun Kumar and AK Singh, who are facing the charge of swindling subordinate staff’s Rs6.58-crore provident fund, again excused themselves from appearance before a special CBI court, saying they were unwell.

When the hearing started on Monday, the counsel for the judges submitted medical certificates affirming they were indisposed.

The judges had reported sick at the time of the last hearing, on January 13, too, but in the meanwhile approached the Allahabad high court (HC) seeking exemption from personal presence in court. HC had asked them to go the special judge with the plea.

The special judge, AK Singh, asked their counsel to ensure the accused appeared before him at the next hearing, otherwise non-bailable warrants (NBWs) would be issued against the erring judges.

“If the undertaking does not reach the court within a week, it would issue NBWs against the six erring judges at the next hearing, scheduled for February 18,” he said.

Singh said the former judges could go to HC for relief, they could go to Delhi for treatment, but could not come to Ghaziabad to appear before the court.

CBI lawyer BK Singh submitted that it was delaying tactics by the former judges on one pretext or the other.

“They should not be allowed to mislead the court and NBWs be issued against them to ensure they are present in the court for hearings,” he pleaded. The scam, in which class-III and -IV employees of the Ghaziabad district court, were cheated, occurred between 2001 and 2007. It was exposed after special CBI judge Rama Jain lodged a criminal case against 70 people at Kavi Nagar Police Station on February 15, 2008.