Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 26: A team of the Delhi police led by led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Devesh Kumar Mahala on Wednesday visited the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma in connection with the investigation into the alleged recovery of sacks of cash from a storeroom of his official house.
The team visited Justice Varma’s residence around 1.50 p.m. and left after two hours of inspection, a senior official said. “The team visited the spot from where the burnt cash was retrieved and later made a list of all the staff members present on the day of the fire,” said the officer.
The police team was in the house at the behest of the three-member Supreme Court panel probing the cash-at-home row. The team has been asked to seal the scene of crime, the store room where the fire took place and also make a detailed video of the things that are present inside the store room.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna last Saturday formed the three-member committee to look into allegations against Justice Varma. The committee members include Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia, and Karnataka High Court judge Justice Anu Sivaraman.
The panel will be questioning the fire service department officials and check his call records soon, official sources said. The panel visited Justice Varma’s official residence on Tuesday to get an idea about the entire situation.
Sources said the in-house panel will stay in Delhi for three days and the Supreme Court will share information on their designated secretariat soon after which formal proceedings in the matter will begin.
They said the panel would seek a formal explanation from Justice Varma, question fire department officials, quiz his residential and official staffers and conduct a forensic analysis of his call records. They are also likely to rope in Delhi High Court Chief Justice and senior police officials.
The alleged recovery of cash happened after a fire was reported at Justice Varma’s Delhi residence on March 14 and two fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The team later found fire in an outhouse inside his residential premises where stacks of cash were stored.
Following this on March 22, the Chief Justice of India constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into the allegations and later uploaded the inquiry report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyay in the incident. It included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Justice Varma has dismissed the allegations, claiming he was being “indicted and defamed in the press” claiming that no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members. The inquiry report into the incident CJ Upadhyay, however, had said the fire broke out on March 14 in a storeroom of the bungalow where Justice Varma was residing and that the storeroom was accessible only to the residents of the bungalow.
