Senior Civil Judge in Delhi arrested over alleged bribe charges

A senior judge of the Tis Hazari Courts, Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of four lakh rupees from an advocate appointed as a Local Commissioner in one of the matters before the judge..The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested the sitting judge yesterday and produced her before a special judge, CBI, Sanjeev Aggarwal, J., who remanded her to judicial custody for 14 days and her husband to police custody of two days..According to sources, the alleged “deal” was for Rs. 20 lakhs, of which this was the first installment. Tiwari’s husband, a co-accused in the case was remanded to two days police custody along with Vishal Mehan, another accused. The CBI judge’s order states,.“In the facts and circumstances, source of huge recovery of 94 lakhs is yet to be established and that the investigations are at a very nascent stage, therefore fair investigations and interest of justice requires that two days police custody remand each be granted to Vishal Mehan and Alok Lakhanpal.”.The two accused mentioned above are to be produced before the Court on October 1.With respect to Rachna Tiwari, the order states,.“Regarding Ms. Rachna Tiwari only judicial custody remand has been sought, as it is stated that the investigation is at initial stages and that she may influence the witnesses and may tamer with the evidence. In these circumstances, she be sent to judicial custody for a period of 14 days from today and be produced in court in October 13.” .Defence counsel Dilip Rana and C. Dutta will be allowed to be present between 10.00 am to 11.00 am each day during the interrogations of the accused persons..The judge’s residence at Gulabi Bagh judicial complex was raided on Thursday morning with the CBI reportedly recovering Rs. 93.6 lakhs in cash.