A massive pile of cash has allegedly been recovered from the residence of Delhi High Court’s Justice Yashwant Varma, who could be transferred to his parent High Court in Allahabad, the Supreme Court collegium has proposed pending approval by the Centre, sources said. The top...Read More
The collegium system of judges appointing judges is deeply flawed, senior Supreme Court lawyer and former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve told CNN-News18 on Friday in an exclusive conversation against the backdrop of a massive pile of cash allegedly being recovered from the residence of Delhi High Court’s Justice Yashwant Varma.
Justice Varma could be transferred to his parent High Court in Allahabad, the Supreme Court collegium has proposed, pending approval by the Centre, sources said. The top court has stated that the move is unrelated to the controversy.
“If the allegations are true and the fact that the SC has considered it necessary to act, then the response has established things that critics of the collegium system like me have always said—that this system doesn’t work," Salve told CNN-News18.
The money was allegedly recovered from the official bungalow of Justice Yashwant Varma after a fire broke out at his residence on Tughlak Road. Justice Varma was not in the city when the incident took place, and his family members called the fire brigade and police. After the blaze was doused, first responders allegedly found a huge amount of cash inside a room, leading to an inquiry against the judge.
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“Today this is not the case where there are some internal complaints against the working of the judge, and in order to ensure that judicial independence is not compromised, you do an in-house inquiry," Salve said. “Today, this complaint is, as per newspapers, fire brigade and police went to his place to rescue it from fire and found large sums of cash. Now if this is true, it’s something which has happened in public."
The collegium, headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, has proposed to transfer the judge, sources informed News18.
“This collegium system is deeply flawed. If this had been found in someone else’s house, the ED would have been at the doorstep," said Salve. “If this money had been found at the house of the home secretary, finance secretary, transport secretary, would they have been transferred to another department? They would have been suspended…Higher standards need to be applied…Moving one judge from one court to another is just convenient…It’s wrong."
The judge either has an explanation or he does not, said Salve, adding that if he is able to explain the sources of the money, an investigation is needed anyway.
“I have always been a critic of collegium. It’s a stop-gap arrangement. The system must run with transparency and collegium cannot work that way," Salve told CNN-News18. “The institution of judiciary is on trial. There cannot be a judge-dominated panel on this investigation…An in-house probe is not good enough."
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has opposed the proposal to transfer the judge there. In a strongly worded letter to that court’s Chief Justice, the group asked if the Allahabad HC is a “trash bin".
“Why are you transferring this judge?" said Salve. “If he is fit, let him be in Delhi. And if he is unfit till the cloud is removed, is he fit for Allahabad HC and not for Delhi HC? What is Allahabad HC…Is it a dumping ground? If he is not of doubtful integrity, leave him alone and tell people that this is nonsense and false."
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The judge can be asked to go on leave, and there could be an independent inquiry, the senior SC lawyer said.
“The system must run with transparency…collegium is not transparent. Judges should speak only through judgements," Salve said. “Can CJI come and address a press conference and tell what is going on? We need a system that can work in the public domain for incidents like this."
The collegium thought to find a quick fix for the situation, but such problems cannot be resolved like this, Salve said.
“Parliament has to respond across party lines. Let all MPs acknowledge they want honesty in judiciary…To hammer out a structure…Transparency in appointment and accountability in the cases," he said. “I think that the faith of the people in the SC will be re-enforced if it is willing to deal firmly with one of its own."
There have to be some structural changes to bring the judiciary to contemporary transparency, he said.
“Whatever has happened…This has to be dealt with in the sunlight," said Salve. “The time has come for parliamentarians to put their heads together and find a solution."
Panipat Police said “The attacker also fired at his cousin and another person. Both were injured, while the JJP leader died. Five teams have been formed to nab the accused."
The accused, Ranbir from Jagsi village, fled from the spot after the incident, police said, adding that they had launched a manhunt to nab him.
“JJP leader Ravinder Minna has been shot dead in the incident. We are conducting further investigations," SHO of Sector 29, Panipat, Subhash said over phone.
Minna was JJP’s 2024 Assembly election candidate from Panipat city.
This incident comes after the killing of BJP leader Surendra Jawahra in Sonipat last week. Sonipat police report that Jawahra was reportedly shot by his neighbor on March 14 over a land dispute.
Location :
Panipat, India, India
First Published:
March 22, 2025, 07:42 IST
Newsindia JJP Leader Ravinder Minna Shot Dead In Panipat, Cops Launch Manhunt For Absconding Accused
Muskan and her lover Sahil Shukla were arrested and remanded to 14-day judicial custody. (PTI)
Meerut Murder Case: In the latest development in the case of the murder of Saurabh Rajpur, a merchant navy officer, an audio clip of Muskan Rastogi, his wife and an accused in the case, is going viral on social media platforms.
The WhatsApp voice note, which is reportedly from the time when Muskan was in Shimla along with her lover Sahil Shukla, following the gruesome murder of her husband, is circulating on social media platforms.
In the clip, Muskan can be heard instructing her cab driver to get a cake and to let her know if he got it via message. She further asks him not to call her and to give her the cake in her hotel room, saying that it was his belonging and he would take it back from her the next morning.
Notably, Muskan ordered the cake for her lover Sahil for his birthday on March 11.
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Muskan and Sahil killed Saurabh on March 4 after drugging him, chopped his body into 15 pieces, sealed it in a drum to dispose it off. The duo, who confessed to the crime after being arrested, also went on a vacation to Shimla and Manali after killing Saurabh.
Meanwhile, Muskan’s father has called for capital punishment for his daughter, referring to her actions as “very wrong."
“My daughter (Muskan) killed her husband (Saurabh)… She is not fit for society and is dangerous to everyone. I would advise others not to take such steps… She should be hanged till death, and if possible, it should be live…," Pramod was quoted as saying by ANI.
“The verdict in this case should come fast, and I don’t want anything less than capital punishment for her… What she did is very wrong… My son-in-law should get justice," he added.
Muskan’s mother, meanwhile, expressed regret that her daughter did not share her problems and stressed the need for communication between children and their parents.
“I want to tell all the children out there that never hide anything from your parents. My child has committed a big mistake. I used to ask her continuously what the problem was, but she kept losing weight; she had lost 10 kg in 2 years. She hid a lot of things from us, and that’s why she is in jail today. We have no idea if she was brainwashed or did drugs… Had she shared something with us, she wouldn’t have been in this condition," Kavita told ANI.
Senior Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh stirred a controversy after he was involved in a heated argument with a group of women from Medinipur constituency, who confronted him about the lack of development in the area. A video had gone viral in which the BJP leader threatened to choke a woman protester in Kharagpur drawing criticism from the ruling Trinamool.
Ghosh was surrounded by the local women when he had gone to inaugurate a newly built road in Ward number 6 on Friday. The women questioned his absence during his tenure as an MP, infuriating the former state BJP chief.
The women questioned why the BJP leader was attending the road inauguration despite the road being built by the municipality, “Where were you all this time? We didn’t see you even for a day when you were an MP. Now after our councillor (Pradip Sarkar of the Trinamool) has built the road, you’re here?" asked a woman.
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Ghosh responded aggressively, “I have given the money for this; it is not your father’s money! Go and ask Pradip Sarkar (local Trinamool councillor) about it!"
The women did not relent. One of them asked, “Why bring up our father? You were an MP, can you talk like this?"
To this, Ghosh retorted, “I will bring up your fourteen generations!"
“Don’t scream. I will choke you. I had given money for this from my MPLAD fund when I was a parliamentarian," he threatened the protesters and called them “Trinamool’s dogs".
Speaking to reporters, Mr Ghosh later claimed that the protesters were Trinamool Congress supporters “These are opportunists barking for Rs 500 (Lakshmir Bhandar – a government scheme for women). Those who bark, Dilip Ghosh will bring up their father."
“I had worked for the construction of this stretch of road with the MPLAD fund money that was sanctioned during my tenure. I went there to inaugurate it, but at the instruction of the local councillor, a few women came to protest. When Pradip Sarkar was chairman, I was an MLA. Even now, Kharagpur municipality has stalled many of my funded projects," said Mr Ghosh.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leaders condemned Ghosh’s actions, reiterating that the roadwork was carried out by the municipality.
Mr Sarkar, the Trinamool councillor and a former MLA from Kharagpur, said the language he used was unbecoming of a former MP. He also asked why Mr Ghosh went to inaugurate the road despite not being an MP anymore.
“He went there and lost his temper. He disrespected the women by bringing up their fathers. I was not there, but he even insulted my father. He called the women 500-rupee workers. He should apologise. Otherwise, wherever he goes in Kharagpur, there will be protests. Such language is unbecoming of a former MP," said the councillor.
The CBI FIR that was lodged in 2018 described Varma as a non-executive director in Simbhaoli Sugars in 2012 and lists him as “Accused number 10”. The charge is of criminal misconduct, cheating and criminal conspiracy against all the accused
Justice Yaswant Varma’s name had figured in a CBI FIR and an Enforcement Directorate ECIR earlier when he was non-executive director of a company prior to his elevation as a judge of the Allahabad High Court in 2014. CNN-NEWS18 has a copy of the CBI and ED documents that feature Varma as an accused in the matter.
However, last year, the Supreme Court set aside an Allahabad HC decision to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Simbhaoli Sugars matter.
The CBI FIR that was lodged in 2018 described Varma as a non-executive director in Simbhaoli Sugars in 2012 and lists him as “Accused number 10". The charge is of criminal misconduct, cheating and criminal conspiracy against all the accused.
Justice Varma, who was serving presently in the Delhi High Court, is under fire after the Supreme Court collegium proposed transferring him to Allahabad High Court following a suspected amount of cash recovered from his official residence. An in-house inquiry is also being marked against Varma by the Supreme Court.
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What the 2018 FIR said
A CBI FIR was registered against Simbhaoli Sugar Mill on February 2018 by Oriental Bank of Commerce. The company allegedly took heavy loan to distribute among farmers for their agricultural equipment and other needs but later misappropriated it and transferred the loan amount into its other accounts. There was a clear-cut diversion of funds, it was alleged. The money received by the company has been used for purposes other than agreed upon, the FIR said.
The bank had declared Simbhoali Sugars Limited as suspected fraud for an amount involving Rs 97.85 crore for the reason of misappropriation and criminal breach of trust and the same was reported to the Reserve Bank of India on 13.05.2015.
An FIR was registered by CBI against 12 persons and Yashwant Varma’s name figured on tenth number as non-executive director of the company. Five days after the CBI FIR in the predicate offence, the Enforcement Directorate also filed a complaint on 27.02.2018 under Section 3/4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, at Police Station- Enforcement Directorate, District-Lucknow.
The Supreme Court last year said the HC erred in ordering a CBI probe in the matter as no investigation was warranted. The apex court, however, added that authorities were not precluded from taking action for fraud in accordance with law.
Sources say Varma’s name was struck off from the FIR by the CBI a short while after the FIR was lodged, and the agency had informed the court that his name is being removed.
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Kerala Lottery Karunya KR-698 Results: The first prize winner of Karunya KR-698 will get Rs 80 lakh. (Image: Shutterstock)
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