In a significant legal development, former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav was acquitted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in a long-standing corruption case dating back to 2008. The verdict was delivered by Special CBI Judge Alka Malik in Chandigarh on Saturday afternoon.
The case, which captured the nation’s attention for being the first instance of a sitting judge being implicated in a corruption scandal, began when a packet containing ₹15 lakh was mistakenly delivered to the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, who was then serving at the high court. The money was reportedly meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav as alleged payment for a favorable judgment in a 2007 property dispute involving key figures like then Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal, property dealer Rajiv Gupta, and Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh Bhasin.
Following the scandal, Justice Yadav took leave and was later transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court. The case quickly moved from local police to the CBI, which initially cleared Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of any involvement. Despite a closure report filed by the CBI in 2009, the CBI court ordered further investigation, leading to the prosecution’s eventual chargesheet against Justice Yadav in March 2011.
Throughout the protracted legal proceedings, the case saw numerous twists, including the death of four witnesses and the turning hostile of 13 out of 69 prosecution witnesses, among them key individuals close to the case. Notable among the hostile witnesses were the personal security officer of Justice Yadav and relatives of Sanjeev Bansal, who passed away from a brain tumor during the trial.
After nearly 17 years of courtroom battles and over 300 hearings across various benches of the CBI court, the acquittal of Justice Nirmal Yadav marks a closure to this high-profile case, raising questions about the initial handling of the investigation and the challenges in prosecuting cases involving high-ranking officials.
