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The Supreme Court on late Saturday evening gave the first official confirmation that cash was found at the residence of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma when a fire broke out there on March 14. The apex court uploaded videos and photographs which Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora purportedly shared with the Chief Justice Upadhyaya. The fire incident was reported at Justice Varma’s residence on March 14, when he was not home. A huge cash stack was allegedly recovered during the fire-control operation, leading to a massive controversy.

The top court put out the inquiry report of Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya on the ongoing cash-at-home row relating to the sitting judge of the High Court.

The released video shows cash on the ground, a lot of which was in the burnt state.

Justice Yashwant Varma’s Response To Allegations

The Supreme Court also released the response by Justice Varma

Justice Varma rejected the allegations that a huge pile of cash had been recovered from his official bungalow and said that no cash had ever been placed in that storeroom either by him or his family members. He strongly denounced that the alleged cash belonged to him, claiming he was being “indicted and defamed in the press".

“I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous. The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous," he said, as per the report.

“It is a room which is completely disassociated from my living areas and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that outhouse. I only wish that the media had conducted some enquiry before I came to be indicted and defamed in the press," the Judge added in his defence.

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The report submitted by the Chief Justice states that the incident took place on March 14 in a storeroom, which only the residents of the bungalow could access. Chief Justice Upadhyay was informed about it by the Delhi Police Commissioner on March 15 at around 4:50 pm.

Later, the Chief Justice, along with the High Court Registrar, personally visited the spot, where he also met Justice Varma. The report was prepared based on this visit.

After receiving the report, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, on March 21, asked Chief Justice Upadhyay to get a response from Justice Varma regarding the presence of “unaccounted cash," its “source," and who removed the “burnt cash" on the morning of March 15. Justice Varma was also instructed not to delete any phone numbers, messages, or data from his mobile phone, Live Law reported.

CJI Forms 3-Member Panel To Probe Allegations

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday constituted a three-member committee to investigate allegations against Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma. The inquiry is part of an in-house mechanism to investigate the allegations.

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The three-member panel includes Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the Karnataka High Court.

The CJI also directed the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma during the investigation. The Delhi High Court’s report on the cash discovery allegations, along with Justice Varma’s response, will be published soon on the Supreme Court’s website, the press release by the Supreme Court read.