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Judges scam: court asks for UP response to CBI probe plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government whether a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation could be ordered into the Rs. 7-crore Ghaziabad provident fund scam allegedly involving judges.

A three-judge Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat, Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice G.S. Singhvi passed this order during the course of hearing of petitions seeking a CBI probe into the scam after the court was informed of a letter written by Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad to the State DGP, suggesting that the matter could be referred to the CBI as it was impossible for the local police to investigate the case freely. The Bench, after hearing senior counsel Anil Divan for the petitioner asked the State to file its reply in two weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on October 22.

Justice Pasayat told the U.P. counsel, “you did not disclose it to the Supreme Court. He {SSP) himself had pleaded—‘change me there is tremendous pressure.’ We are extremely sorry with your approach. The matter has been heard by two Benches before but you had not disclosed this.”

In his letter, the SSP while recommending transfer of the probe to the CBI has expressed the view that the local police would not be able to investigate the scandal since some of the accused were district judges, High Court judges and also a Supreme Court judge.

He said “Investigation against the judges concerned has to be commenced only after permission is granted [for interrogation] and in this regard a thorough scrutiny of a large number of documents would be needed. However, I am facing multiple problems at the district level in executing my investigation.”

Two petitions seeking a CBI probe into the scam were posted before a Bench of Justice Pasayat after the CJI and subsequently Justice B.N. Agrawal recused themselves in the case.

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