Ex-judicial magistrate held guilty for escaping CBI’s custody in 2003, quantum on Friday

Allowing the state’s appeal, former judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) SS Bhardwaj has been held guilty for previously escaping the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) custody in 2003.

The former Chandigarh judicial officer had escaped from his residence on May 11, 2003 after CBI caught him accepting ₹7 lakh as bribe for himself and a Jalandhar district and sessions judge RM Gupta.

Bhardwaj is the country’s first judge who was convicted for graft back then.

Charges against Bhardwaj were framed under Section 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Bhardwaj, who runs a coaching centre for law aspirants in Sector 24, was acquitted in this case in 2014, following which the state had filed an appeal.

Allowing the same plea, the court of additional district and sessions judge Ashwani Kumar Mehta sent him to police custody. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on Friday.

On May 11, 2003, the CBI had caught Bhardwaj, then posted at the UT district courts, while accepting ₹7 lakh as the first instalment of a ₹11-lakh bribe that he had demanded to secure bail for an accused.

Gupta, who had granted the bail a day before, was arrested the same day based on Bhardwaj’ s statement. Bhardwaj, however, escaped from the CBI custody the same night and later surrendered.

Bhardwaj can face up to two-year imprisonment in this matter.

Moreover, his name had also cropped up in the Haryana Civil Services (HCS) (judicial) recruitment scam when the challan was filed in the court.

According to police investigation, Bhardwaj is the owner of the academy where accused Sunita and Ayushi took coaching classes for the entrance exam.

First Published: Sep 20, 2018 13:49 IST