CBI seeks arrest warrants against judges in PF scam

Ghaziabad, Jan 13 (PTI) CBI today approached a localcourt seeking issue of arrest warrants against six formerjudges, including three who retired from Allahabad High Court,in connection with the Rs 6.53 crore Provident Fund scam.

Opposing the pleas of six judges citing one reason orthe other for their non-appearance, the agency counselinformed the special CBI judge A K Singh''s court that thejudges had not been cooperating and that an arrest warrantshould be issued for ensuring their presence in hearings.

The judges include R P Mishra, R P Yadav, R N Mishra, AK Singh, R S Choubey (all former district Judges) and ArunKumar, the then Additional District Judge.

Yadav, R N Mishra and Singh later retired as judges ofAllahabad High Court.

After hearing the arguements of both the sides, thedesignated judge dismissed the plea of the judges and askedthem to appear on the next date of hearing on January 31.

The court had summoned the judges in the case but noneof them had appeared even though a chargesheet has been filedagainst them.

The CBI filed a chargesheet against 78 people, includingthree former judges of Allahabad High Court and three districtjudges in the case.

The case took a new turn after the key accused AshutoshAsthana, died under mysterious circumstances at the Dasnajail.

The scam was exposed after special CBI judge Rama Jainlodged a criminal case against 70 people at Kavi Nagar policestation in February 15, 2008 following which Asthana wasarrested.

The CBI claimed to have found details in the manner inwhich the hard-earned PF money of class III and IV employeesof Ghaziabad courts was illegally siphoned out and lavishlyspent on furniture, crockery, mobiles, electronic gadgets andappliances, laptops, rail tickets, taxi fare and other luxuryitems for the judges.

Asthana, who as the treasury officer was tasked tosafeguard the PF money of the employees, allegedly did notthink twice before opening the strings of the illegally-filledpurse to meet the expenses for transporting articles--furniture, crockery, utensils which again were bought from thePF money--to the residences of the judges.

CBI claimed to have recovered four original certificatesissued by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ghaziabad, certifyingthat the truck numbers mentioned were carrying the articles ofmembers of judiciary, which were given to the truck driver forsmooth passage of goods while passing several states.