The court of CBI Judge, Jagjit Singh, where the matter came up for hearing on Monday, said, “All the proceedings in the present case almost stand concluded except for some arguments on behalf of the accused and then the rebuttal by the learned Public Prosecutor. However, the pronouncement of final judgment has been stayed by the Hon’ble High Court, Chandigarh and as such, the case stands adjourned to 26.05.2023 for awaiting further orders from the Hon’ble High Court, Chandigarh.”

Earlier, on December 21, 2022, the High Court, while hearing the plea of the CBI, had ordered, “The trial may continue, however, final judgment shall not be pronounced till the next date.”

The trial at the special CBI court in Chandigarh is presently at the stage of final arguments.

The CBI, in its application before the High Court, had submitted that during the trial of the case, witnesses Rajinder Kumar (Prosecution Witness (PW)-1), Mohinder Kaur (PW-2), Rakesh Kumar (PW-3), Mohan Joshi (PW-4), Bansidhar (PW-34), Vijay Singh (PW-35), and Manju Jain (PW-62), were dropped by the CBI special public prosecutor. However, out of these witnesses, Kaur, Kumar and Joshi had in their statements, recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC, revealed relevant facts against the accused, the CBI said.

The CBI application at the High Court had stated that the evidence by the witnesses is essential for a “just and current” decision in this case.

As per the case, on August 13, 2008, a packet containing Rs 15 lakh, which was allegedly supposed to be delivered at former Justice Nirmal Yadav’s residence, was wrongly delivered at the residence of then Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Nirmaljit Kaur.

Justice Kaur, who received the packet at her residence from her staff, was told that someone had brought the package and claimed that it contained papers of a case from Delhi. Justice Kaur, however, on opening the packet was surprised to find Rs 15 lakh in cash inside. Justice Kaur then alerted the police and the then Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court. An FIR was registered by Chandigarh Police on August 16, 2008. However, 10 days later, the then UT administrator transferred the investigation to the CBI, which registered a fresh FIR in the matter on August 28, 2008.

The five accused in the case are former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Nirmal Yadav, who was the alleged intended recipient of the money; Sanjiv Bansal (now deceased), the former Advocate General of Haryana, who reportedly got the money delivered for accused Ravinder Singh Bhasin; Ravinder Singh Bhasin, a former Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court who allegedly sent the money through Bansal; Rajiv Gupta, a private individual who claimed to be part of a land deal with Ravinder Singh for which money was to be given; and Nirmal Singh, another private individual who told the police that the money was meant for him as he had brokered the land deal.

The CBI decided not to name a few others, like Parkash Ram, a clerk of Bansal, who delivered the money at Kaur’s house. The trial proceedings for Bansal were dropped on February 12, 2017, as he died following illness, reportedly due to a brain tumour.