The Supreme Court has made public reports, photos, and videos related to allegations of unaccounted cash found at Justice Yashwant Verma's residence. Justice Verma, a sitting Delhi High Court judge, denies wrongdoing. A three-judge panel has been formed to investigate. The court seeks details on the source of the cash and staff at Verma's residence. Justice Verma claims the allegations are a conspiracy to malign him.
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00:00In a rare act of public disclosure, the Supreme Court uploaded reports, photos and videos
00:06related to the allegations of unaccounted cash discovered at the official residence
00:11of Justice Yashwant Verma, a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court.
00:15The materials now available on the court's website reveal the findings of an internal
00:19investigation and Justice Verma's detailed response denying the allegations.
00:23The Supreme Court also uploaded videos and photographs which Delhi Police Commissioner
00:27Sanjay Arora perpetually shared with Chief Justice Upadhyay.
00:30A three-judge panel has been formed by the Supreme Court to probe the case.
00:35Justice Verma has denied the allegations, calling them a conspiracy to malign him.
00:38He also claimed that the room where the cash was found was accessible to everyone, including
00:43his workers, gardeners and even staff from the Central Public Works Department.
00:48The Supreme Court has written to the High Court and asked questions from Justice Verma.
00:51The Supreme Court seeks the source of the cash and details of staff members from the
00:55last six months at Verma's residence.
00:58Justice Verma has been explicitly asked not to delete any data from his phone.
01:06What Justice Verma has said on the entire matter is that he has said that all the allegations
01:10against him are preposterous and he's denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
01:14He's denied a cash haul, saying that no cash was placed in the storeroom that was there
01:18in his house.
01:19He's also gone on to say that the cash does not belong to him or his family.
01:23He's further said no sacks of burnt currency were found in the storeroom.
01:28No cash was shown to his family or the staff that was present there at the house.
01:33This is what Justice Verma has said when it comes to the cash that was found in the storeroom,
01:38saying that this is a conspiracy to malign him, to tarnish his image, and it is in fact
01:43to frame him.
01:48That is what Justice Verma has said after a huge wads of cash were found, burnt cash
01:53were found in the storeroom.
01:55This incident occurred on March 14.
01:57In a rare public disclosure, the Supreme Court has uploaded the reports, videos and photos
02:02related to the allegations of this unaccounted cash, pictures of which and videos of which
02:07you see on the screen.
02:08This was at the official residence of Justice Yashwant Verma, a sitting judge of the Delhi
02:12High Court.
02:13The materials available on the court's website now reveal the findings of an internal investigation
02:18and Justice Verma's detailed response denying the allegations.
02:22The Supreme Court has also uploaded videos and photographs which Delhi Police Commissioner
02:26Sanjay Arora perpetually shared with the Chief Justice Upadhyay.
02:31A three-judge panel has also been formed by the Supreme Court to probe the entire incident.
02:35Justice Verma has denied the allegations, calling them a conspiracy to malign him.
02:40He also claimed that the room where the cash was found was accessible to everyone, including
02:44his workers and gardeners and even the staff from the Central Public Works Department.
02:50He said that no cash was placed in the storeroom that was there in the house.
03:20The Supreme Court has also released an entire press release, including all the concerned
03:23documents with regard to this case, including the communication sent by the Chief Justice
03:28of India to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice and also the High Court Chief Justice's inquiry
03:33report with Justice Verma's response as well.
03:36The Chief Justice of India asked the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to get clarifications
03:40from Justice Verma in certain important aspects, including how does he account for the cash
03:45that was found in that said room, the source of the money, the cash, etc.
03:51Now, post that, the Delhi High Court Chief Justice in his report has said many important
03:55points regarding the inquiry, stating that the inquiry conducted by him reveals, it does
04:02not reveal the possibility of impure access to the room, the said room where the incident
04:06took place, by any person other than his family members, those residing in the bungalow, the
04:11servants, gardeners and the CPW persons.
04:15So even according to the Chief Justice, these persons could have accessed the said room
04:19and the Chief Justice has said that he has the privacy of opinion that the entire matter
04:22warrants a deeper probe.
04:24Now, Justice Yashwant Verma, as you pointed out, has vehemently denied all these allegations.
04:29He in fact even questioned that the room where the incident took place is in one corner of
04:34the house, completely separate from the bungalow where his family resides.
04:40The incident happened when him and his wife were not even in town and also that there
04:45is a possibility, he basically said that this is a conspiracy.
04:48It clearly is a conspiracy to malign him and against him.
04:52The Supreme Court, as of now, the Chief Justice has constituted a three-member panel which
04:57consists of High Court judges, which will now probe into this entire issue and the allegations
05:03that have been made against Justice Verma.
05:06Right, Srishti, what can you tell us about the reaction of the judicial fraternity in
05:09the entire matter because this is something that has made national headlines and even
05:13though Justice Verma has denied the allegations, there are questions that are being raised
05:18about where, how the cash, so many wads of cash were found in his residence.
05:22Well, since the news broke out on Friday morning, we have seen, you know, the legal fraternity
05:30very, was extremely shocked.
05:32We also spoke to many lawyers who both on and off record have told us that, you know,
05:36this is an extremely shocking incident.
05:38At the end of the day, allegations like these end up raising a big question and also end
05:43up, you know, bringing up this topic, the topic debatable, which is corruption in Vinny
05:47Sheth.
05:48But on the other hand, we have also spoken, there are also lawyers and, you know, people
05:53who are saying that the allegations are not yet proven.
05:55So the possibility of a conspiracy, as Justice Verma has also now indicated, could be true.
06:00There is no proof as of now, you know, as to whether the cash belonged to him and what
06:05exactly has happened.
06:06The inquiry is yet to be completed.
06:08But yes, just the fact that cash in such large amounts was found at a setting hypo judge
06:15in itself is an extremely shocking thing, because, you know, the entire idea of independence
06:23of judiciary and the judicial system is supposed to be, the judges are supposed to be honest,
06:27et cetera.
06:27But, well, whether or not he's guilty, something, you know, what exactly happened is something
06:32we'll know once the inquiry concludes.
06:35Right.
06:37Srishti, what can you tell us about the three-member panel that has been formed by the Supreme
06:41Court to probe the entire incident?
06:42Who is part of the panel?
06:48Well, so the CJR has constituted a three-member committee.
06:51It consists of, when a three-member panel is constituted as part of the in-house procedures,
06:57it's supposed to consist of two sitting high-court chief justices and one high-court judge.
07:03In this case, the committee has the Chief Justice of High Court of Punjab and Haryana,
07:07the Chief Justice of High Court of Himachal Pradesh and the judge of the Karnataka High
07:12Court.
07:12They've been asked to conduct an inquiry into the allegations that have been made against
07:16Justice Verma.
07:17And after that, what we also heard from the court was, till the time being, this inquiry
07:22is being conducted.
07:23The Chief Justice of Delhi High Court has also been asked to not assign any judicial
07:27work to Justice Yashwant Verma.
07:31So, considering the court has made the earlier reports public, we're also expecting once
07:37the report of this committee comes out, the court is also likely to make that report public
07:43when we should have information as to what exactly the committee decides.
07:47Well, only time will tell what the probe report reveals.
07:49Thank you, Srishti, for bringing us those details on that story.