PF scam: CBI clean chit to 17 judges
No less than 24 judges, including a retired SC judge, have been indicted by the CBI probe into the Ghaziabad PF scam.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: No less than 24 judges, including a retired SC judge, have been indicted by the CBI probe into the Ghaziabad PF scam.
After the investigative agency presented its report to SC, Attorney General G E Vahanvati vehemently argued for transfer of the trial of the PF scam from Ghaziabad to Delhi while accusing the sitting district judge of interfering with the trial by attempting to rope in the Uttar Pradesh police as prosecution in the case and asking CBI to take a back seat despite the agency having been entrusted the task of investigation by the apex court.
Vahanvati explained that if the district judge, under whose administrative jurisdiction the CBI judge conducting the trial functions, was to take such a stand, then the trial would be vitiated . More so, because the CBI has already chargesheeted six judges along with 72 others in the scam.
The bench immediately stayed further trial proceedings before the special judge in the PF scam that was spread from the year 2001 to 2008 with the accused, Asuthosh Asthana, as treasury officer playing a key role. The whistle on the scam was blown by the special judge, Ghaziabad, Rama Jain, who filed a complaint on February 15, 2008. Asthana died under mysterious circumstances in Dasna jail in September last year.
If it questioned the behaviour of 24 judges, then CBI also gave a clean chit to 17 other judges, including Justice S C Nigam of Allahabad HC, against whom it found no material evidence.
“In respect of 24 judges/judicial officers, sufficient prosecutable evidence was not available warranting their prosecution. A CBI report has been sent to the competent authorities for appropriate action against them for various acts of commission and omission ,” the agency said.
The CBI has found details of the heartless manner in which the hard-earned PF money of class-III and IV employees of Ghaziabad courts was illegally siphoned out.
After the investigative agency presented its report to SC, Attorney General G E Vahanvati vehemently argued for transfer of the trial of the PF scam from Ghaziabad to Delhi while accusing the sitting district judge of interfering with the trial by attempting to rope in the Uttar Pradesh police as prosecution in the case and asking CBI to take a back seat despite the agency having been entrusted the task of investigation by the apex court.
Vahanvati explained that if the district judge, under whose administrative jurisdiction the CBI judge conducting the trial functions, was to take such a stand, then the trial would be vitiated . More so, because the CBI has already chargesheeted six judges along with 72 others in the scam.
The bench immediately stayed further trial proceedings before the special judge in the PF scam that was spread from the year 2001 to 2008 with the accused, Asuthosh Asthana, as treasury officer playing a key role. The whistle on the scam was blown by the special judge, Ghaziabad, Rama Jain, who filed a complaint on February 15, 2008. Asthana died under mysterious circumstances in Dasna jail in September last year.
If it questioned the behaviour of 24 judges, then CBI also gave a clean chit to 17 other judges, including Justice S C Nigam of Allahabad HC, against whom it found no material evidence.
“In respect of 24 judges/judicial officers, sufficient prosecutable evidence was not available warranting their prosecution. A CBI report has been sent to the competent authorities for appropriate action against them for various acts of commission and omission ,” the agency said.
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The CBI has found details of the heartless manner in which the hard-earned PF money of class-III and IV employees of Ghaziabad courts was illegally siphoned out.
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