Punjab: Judge appears before cash-at-judge's panel

Chandigarh, Sept 29: Punjab and Haryana High Court lady judge, Nirmaljit Kaur on Monday appeared before a three-judge panel set up by Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan to look into the cash-at-judge's door scandal.

The panel consisting of Allahabad High Court's Justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale, Jammu and Kashmir High Court's Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Delhi High Court's Justice Madan B Lokur was set up by the CJI on August 26 this year.

With the panel beginning its probe today, Justice Kaur, whose staff member is a complainant in the case in which five persons, including a former Haryana's Additional Advocate General (AAG) Sanjeev Bansal had been arrested, was asked to provide necessary inputs in the case.

According reports, the panel initiated the inquiry proceedings from Justice Kaur and may question Justice Nirmal Yadav, whose name appeared during the questioning of the five alleged accused in the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Chandigarh Police.

The panel may also question Bansal, his clerk Parkash Ram, home guard jawan Nirmal Singh, a Delhi-based businessman Ravinder Singh Bhasin and property dealer Rajeev Gupta.

While the prime accused Bhasin is in CBI custody till September 30 in this case, four others including Bansal, Parkash Ram, Rajeev Gupta, and Nirmal Singh are in judicial lock up.

It may be recalled that the Chandigarh administration had last month referred the scandal, which is related to the alleged delivery of Rs 15 lakh at the house of Justice Kaur "mistakenly" by the clerk of Bansal on August 13, to the CBI on the ground that it may have inter-state ramifications. Both the CBI probe and the judge's panel inquiry will proceed on simultaneously.

ANI