A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Chandigarh on Saturday acquitted former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav in the long-standing 2008 corruption case.
The verdict was delivered in the post-lunch session by Special CBI Judge Alka Malik at the district courts complex.
The case, which first made national headlines in 2008, involved allegations that ₹15 lakh in cash was wrongly delivered to the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, who was also a sitting judge at the Punjab and Haryana High Court at the time.
She reported the incident to the police, leading to the registration of an FIR on August 13, 2008. Investigations later suggested that the cash was actually meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav and was allegedly sent as a bribe in return for a favorable judgment in a 2007 property dispute in Panchkula.
The other accused in the case included then Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal, property dealer Rajiv Gupta, and Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh Bhasin.
Following the allegations, Justice Yadav went on leave and was later transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court. The case was handed over to the CBI within two weeks of the incident.
Meanwhile, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, who was initially caught in the scandal, was cleared by both an internal Supreme Court panel and the CBI. She was later transferred to the Rajasthan High Court in 2012, returned to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018, and retired in 2021.
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In 2009, the CBI filed a closure report, stating that no concrete case could be made out. However, the CBI court rejected the closure report and ordered re-investigation.
On July 28, 2010, the then Chief Justice of India approved prosecution against Justice Yadav, followed by the President of India’s sanction on March 1, 2011.
The CBI filed a chargesheet on March 3, 2011, just a day before Justice Yadav’s retirement. She made two unsuccessful attempts to challenge the proceedings in the High Court and Supreme Court.
In 2014, the CBI court framed charges against all accused, and the trial continued for 17 years, finally concluding on March 27, 2024.
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The case saw testimony from 69 prosecution witnesses, of which 13 turned hostile, while four witnesses passed away during the trial. Among those who retracted their statements were Justice Yadav’s personal security officer, Renu Bansal (wife of Sanjeev Bansal), Raj Kumar Jindal (Bansal’s cousin), and Santosh Tripathi (Bansal’s former colleague).
Sanjeev Bansal, the key figure in the case whose clerk mistakenly delivered the cash to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur’s residence, died of a brain tumor while the trial was ongoing.
Over the 17-year legal battle, the case was heard by multiple judges in the CBI court, appearing before them at least 300 times before reaching its final verdict.
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