Justice Yashwant Varma's Conduct After Fire Incident Unnatural, Says Inquiry Panel Rejecting Conspiracy Theories

The 3-judge in-house inquiry committee, which indicted Justice Yashwant Varma for keeping unaccounted cash in the storeroom annexed to his official bungalow, termed his conduct after the fire incident on March 14 - which led to the discovery of the currency notes - unnatural, leading to certain adverse inferences against him.The full report of the in-house committee, which came into the public domain following its publication by The Leaflet, concluded that there was sufficient substance in the allegations of misconduct against Justice Varma.After examining 55 witnesses, including Justice Varma and his daughter, and electronic evidence in the form of videos and photographs taken by the members of the fire brigade, the committee held that cash was found in his official premises. Finding that the storeroom was within the “covert or active control of Justice Varma and his family members”, the committee held that the burden was upon him to explain the presence of cash. Since the judge could not discharge his burden by offering a plausible explanation, except giving a "flat denial or a bald plea of conspiracy", the committee found sufficient grounds to propose action against him.The committee, consisting of Justice Sheel Nagu (CJ of P&H HC), Justice GS Sandhawalia (CJ of HP HC) and Justice Anu Sivaraman (judge of Karnataka High Court), was constituted by the then CJI Sanjiv Khanna on March 22, a day after reports about the discovery of cash notes surfaced.The committee relied upon the evidence of several official witnesses who deposed about seeing the burning currency notes while undertaking the firefighting exercise on March 14. Significantly, in one of the videos, the committee noted that the voice of the Private Secretary of Justice Varma, Rajinder Singh Karki, was there, where he was heard calling another staff member of the judge, Md.Rahil. The committee also recorded that Karki admitted his voice.From the call records, the committee found that Justice Varma was constantly communicating with his PS on the night of March 14 after the fire incident. An inference was made that the burnt cash/money was removed from the store room during the wee hours of March 15 after the fire brigade left. Justice Varma's conduct unnaturalThe committee opined that Justice Varma's conduct after his return from Bhopal on the evening of March 15, a day after the fire incident, was unnatural. It found it unusual that Justice Varma did not inspect the spot on his return. According to him, he visited the spot only when the Personal Private Secretary of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice reached there at 9 PM on March 15.“A natural reaction of any person would be on arrival to first inspect the site to assess the damage, even if only house hold articles had been damaged and no person was hurt in the fire incident. Rather, if having done so firstly there would be no occasion for Justice Yashwant Varma to visit the site when the PPS had come forth to inspect the store room and he could have asked his Personal Secretary to facilitate the inspection by the PPS. This conduct on the part of Justice Yashwant Varma also is unnatural and defies all logic and leads the Committee to come to a conclusion that the correct picture has not been projected and necessarily an adverse inference has to be drawn against him.”Justice Varma's conspiracy theory debunkedJustice Varma, in his defence, alleged that there was a conspiracy to frame him by planting the incriminating materials there. However, the committee did not take this at face value, observing that he had not named any specific person or had not specified any motive to frame him. “The unnatural conduct of Justice Yashwant Varma has already been noticed above and the fact that if there was any conspiracy theory why he chose not to file any complaint with the police officials or bring it to the notice of the Chief Justice of the High Court or the Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India regarding the fact that there were planted stories regarding the burning of currency notes in the store room which is part of his house.”Also, it was impossible for any outsider to plant the currency notes there, given that the place was under tight security and round-the-clock surveillance.“Therefore, it is well nigh impossible for currency to be planted in the store room of a sitting Judge, which is being monitored by static 1+4 guard and a PSO stationed at the gate at all time, apart from the fact that the house abounds with a large number of old and trusted domestic servants with over six staff quarters.”Further, if it was an act of arson, why did Justice Varma did not inspect the premises soon after his return, the committee wondered.Justice Varma failed to preserve the CCTV visualsIn this context, the committee took note of Justice Varma's failure to preserve and retrieve the visuals from the CCTV cameras covering the storeroom. He told the committee that the cameras were found not to be working, and the hard...

Justice Yashwant Varma's Conduct After Fire Incident Unnatural, Says Inquiry Panel Rejecting Conspiracy Theories

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