Amit Shah 1st to be told about cash at judge Varma's residence

NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah was the first to be informed by Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora about "four or five half-burnt sacks" of cash at Justice Yashwant Varma 's official residence within hours of its chance discovery following a fire on the night of March 14 at the bungalow's storeroom.

Responding to a fire emergency call, firefighters and police reached Justice Varma's Tughlaq Crescent bungalow a little after 11.30pm on March 14. The first responders, who stumbled upon the bags stuffed with cash, shot videos of half-burnt currency notes of Rs 500 denomination around midnight. They left after dousing the fire around 1am on March 15. Delhi Police chief Arora first informed the home minister on March 15 and, later, briefed Delhi HC Chief Justice D K Upadhyay about the cash.

Delhi Police chief Sanjay Arora also shared "certain still photographs and video" of the storeroom fire with the Delhi HC CJ, who in turn informed then CJI Sanjiv Khanna, triggering a chain of events which led to setting up of an inquiry into the sensational episode.

The inquiry panel said in its report, "The information was shared by Arora with Justice D K Upadhyay in the late afternoon of March 15, who was out of station in Lucknow on account of Holi vacation, and he was informed that a report had been sent to the Union home minister, wherein there was reference that there were four or five half-burnt sacks of Indian currency at the spot."

The inquiry panel comprising Punjab and Haryana CJ Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh CJ G S Sandhawalia and Karnataka HC's Justice Anu Sivaraman had sent 10 phones belonging to the first responders, used for taking videos and still images of burning cash in the storeroom, for authentication by Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh.

The laboratory authenticated the images and videos - one of 67 seconds shot by head constable Roop Chand and another of 70 seconds shot by head constable Sunil Kumar. The panel said, "The phones have been analysed by us having been sent to CFSL, Chandigarh, and are per se admissible in view of the provisions of Section 329 of BNSS."

Apart from legal admissibility of the evidence against Justice Varma, the panel said these pieces of evidence also stood corroborated by witnesses. "The said videos have been shown to independent eye-witnesses, including the fire/police personnel who were at the spot (and) who have vouched for the same," the panel said.