Court directs to defreeze suspended judge account

A court here on Tuesday allowed plea of a suspended senior civil judge accused of corruption, seeking to defreeze her short term deposits (STD) account.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal directed to defreeze the STDs generated from the salary account of suspended senior civil judge at Tis Hazari Court, Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal and and ordered release of all the funds generated from it.

Lakhanpal, Aher lawyer husband Alok Lakhanpal and lawyer Vishal Mehan were arrested by the CBI on September 28 and later released on bail.

As per the CBI, a complaint was received on September 27 that the judge had appointed Mehan as a Local Commissioner in a civil case she was adjudicating and had allegedly demanded a bribe.

A CBI team first arrested Mehan while he was allegedly accepting the money from the complainant on behalf of Rachna Lakhanpal on the pretext of getting the court decision in his favour in the disputed property case.

During his questioning, Mehan allegedly said the money was meant to be handed over to her.

Subsequently, Mehan handed over the bribe money to the judge at her residence. She kept Rs 4 lakh and gave back Rs 1 lakh to him just before a CBI team arrested her, CBI said.

The agency said a raid was conducted at her Gulabi Bagh residence on the night of September 28 and Rs 94 lakh was seized.

Her husband was arrested on charge of playing a crucial role in the bribery case.

--IANS

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