A suspended senior civil judge who, along with her lawyer husband was arrested in a graft case for allegedly taking bribe, was today granted bail by a special court.
Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal enlarged Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, who was a senior civil judge at Tis Hazari Court and remanded to judicial custody after her arrest, on bail on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and surety of a like amount. She was suspended after her arrest.
During the arguments, the judge's counsel sought the relief saying there was no direct link between the complainant and the judicial officer whose courtroom has been sealed and she has to take care of her kids as her husband is in jail.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the judge, argued that since there was a gap of two hours between the two raids conducted by the CBI, it cannot be relied upon.
"CBI may say she is influential but post-trap and post- arrest, everything falls down. Court can put any condition on the judge and she would abide by it," he said.
CBI, however, opposed the bail plea saying the probe into the case was at an initial stage and the role of the accused has to be seen as she was an influential person.
CBI prosecutor said there was a conspiracy behind the offence and they have to examine the footage of CCTV cameras installed at the judicial officer's house.
He argued that the advocate and local commissioner (LC) Vishal Mehan, who is also in judicial custody, had sent 'Whatsapp' messages to the judge and thereafter, the communication took place between her husband Alok Lakhanpal and the LC.
The defence counsel, however, said the judge had received some messages on 'Whatsapp' but she had not replied to them.
The judicial officer, her husband and Mehan were arrested by CBI on the night of September 28. Alok, a practicing lawyer, and Mehan are currently in judicial custody.
According to CBI, the judge and her husband were arrested while allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Vishal, who was appointed as local commissioner in a case adjudicated by her, at her Gulabi Bagh residence here.
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CBI had claimed that during searches at the judge's residence, Rs 94 lakh case was seized by it along with two locker keys and other material.
"A case was registered under Prevention of Corruption Act against the advocate on a complaint alleging that in a matter being heard by a Senior Civil Judge (West), Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi, she had appointed him (Mehan) as local commissioner for conducting an inspection of the disputed property and submitting his report.
"The advocate (appointed as LC) allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs two lakh for himself as well as Rs 20 lakh for the said senior civil judge for deciding the matter in favour of the complainant," it had said.
CBI had said its teams laid a trap at the designated place where the bribe was to be allegedly paid by Vishal.
As the bribe was being allegedly paid, CBI teams swung into action and nabbed Vishal while he was "receiving" Rs 5 lakh purportedly on behalf of Lakhanpal, it had claimed.
The team then took the accused advocate to the residence of the judge where he allegedly handed over Rs 5 lakh to Lakhanpal while she gave Rs one lakh to the lawyer as his cut, it said, adding that the alleged bribe amount was also recovered by CBI.
