By IANS,
Chandigarh : A court here Monday sent two accused in the cash-for-judge bribery scam in Central Bureau of Investigation custody for two more days, even as their lawyers argued that neither the CBI nor the police tried to approach and question the judges whose names have figured in the scandal.
A special CBI court Monday evening sent former Haryana advocate general Sanjeev Bansal and another accused in CBI custody for two more days in the scam that rocked the city two weeks back.
Bansal, his assistant Parkash, property dealer Rajiv Gupta and Nirmal Singh were produced in the jam-packed court of Special CBI Judge Jagdeep Jain. The CBI sought a seven-day custody of the accused for further interrogation.
“The Chandigarh police and CBI officials are continuously saying there is a nexus of lawyers and judges but till date they are unable to explain this nexus,” argued defence counsel in the court.
“If they really want to break this alleged nexus then they have to interrogate Nirmaljit Kaur and Nirmal Yadav, the Punjab and Haryana High Court judges whose names have also figured in the case. But they are afraid of going to the door of the judges and are avoiding their questioning,” defence counsel said.
Bansal and Gupta have been sent to police remand for two days while Parkash and Singh have been sent to judicial custody.
The special CBI court issued a non-bailable warrant Monday against key accused Ravinder Singh, a Delhi-based hotelier who is still absconding, till Sep 14.
The scam came to light after an assistant of Bansal got a packet containing Rs.1.5 million delivered at the residence of high court judge Nirmaljit Kaur Aug 13.
The judge reported the matter to the police. Police investigations revealed that the packet was supposed to be delivered to another high court judge, Nirmal Yadav.