Suspended judge may take legal benefit of non-supply of docs:

A special court has said that a suspended senior civil judge, who is an accused along with her lawyer husband in a bribery case, may take legal benefit for non-supply of documents at the time of arrest by the CBI.
Special CBI judge Sanjeev Aggarwal disposed of the plea of Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, who was a senior civil judge at the Tis Hazari Courts, seeking to know the status of the probe against her.
Regarding non-providing of pre- and post-trap memos by the probe agency, the court said its effect would be seen at an appropriate stage.
"Applicant/ accused may take legal benefit on this aspect, whatever may be available to her for non-supply of the memos," it said.

In its reply to the officer's plea, the investigating officer (IO) said the agency will look into and probe every aspect raised by the woman in her application.
The officer had sought a direction to change the IO of the case alleging that he was "biased" and "pre-determined" to file a charge sheet against her.

According to CBI, the judge and her husband Alok Lakhanpal were arrested while allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from advocate Vishal Mehan, who was appointed as local commissioner (LC) in a case adjudicated by her for conducting an inspection of a disputed property and submitting his report, at her Gulabi Bagh residence here.

They were arrested by the CBI on September 28, 2016. The judge was suspended after her arrest. They were later granted bail.
The CBI had claimed that during searches at the judge's residence, Rs 94 lakh cash was seized along with two locker keys and other material.
In her plea, the officer alleged that the IO did not comply with the provisions of CrPC and CBI manual as they did not provide her the copy of post-trap memo which is given to the accused on the spot. When she sought the copy of the document, CBI had opposed it.
The CBI had earlier said, "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 its teams laid a trap at the designated place where the bribe was to be allegedly paid by Mehan.
As the bribe was being allegedly paid, CBI teams swung into action and nabbed Mehan 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 five 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 the CBI.