A judge in Mumbai is accused of bribery. His clerk was caught red-handed by the ACB while taking a bribe of ₹15 lakh to give a favorable verdict in a land dispute. The judge is the main accused and ACB is taking permission from the High Court to investigate him.
Mumbai: From Gram Panchayat to Parliament, today corruption is rife everywhere. Till now people had little confidence in the justice system. Many people hoped that at least the court would give us justice. But now some such incidents are happening, seeing which it seems that you will not get justice even in the court. Yes, last week the ACB has arrested a court clerk for demanding bribe to give the correct verdict in a case. ACB officials have said that a Mumbai trial court judge is the main accused in this case and now ACB officials are preparing to seek permission from the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court to investigate against him.
Bribe demanded to give correct decision
Last week, ACB sleuths had arrested civil court clerk-cum-typist Chandrakant Vasudev red-handed while accepting bribe for getting a verdict in favor of a person in a land dispute case. During this arrest, ACB officials came to know that the judge is also mainly involved in this case. The phone conversation between the arrested clerk and the judge has proved that the judge is mainly involved in this case. Judge Ejazuddin Salauddin Qazi has gone missing after the incident. He is an Additional Sessions Judge in the Civil Court of Mazgaon, Mumbai.
Bribe deal while peeing in toilet
Tony (name changed), a businessman, had approached the court for justice after his wife’s land was taken over by someone else. This case came before the bench of Judge Ijazuddin Salauddin Qazi. A short break was taken in the middle of the hearing. During this time, petitioner Tony went to the toilet. At the same time, Judge Qazi’s clerk also followed him. While both of them were urinating there, clerk Chandrakant Vasudev said to Tony in a normal manner, ‘If you take a little care of the judge, the decision will come in your favor.’ Then Tony asked what it meant. The clerk immediately replied Rs 25 lakh. Tony denied this. The hearing of this case was postponed that day.
Repeated calls to complainant, bargaining from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 15 lakh
Two days later Tony called again. From the other side it was said, ‘Think about it, don’t cry later that the decision was not in my favor.’ Tony hung up the phone. The clerk did not stop even at this and called again. While talking, he tried to settle a deal for Rs 15 lakh. Fed up with his bribery, Tony went straight to ACB. He told Tony to call the clerk and say yes to the deal. Accordingly, Tony called the clerk and agreed to the deal. The clerk then fixed a place to pick up the money. Tony went to the address given by him, and ACB officers were also following him. They caught this clerk red handed.
Clerk caught red handed in ACB’s trap
As soon as clerk Chandrakant Vasudev realized that he had fallen into the ACB’s trap, he said, ‘I am just doing what the judge said.’ ACB officials immediately asked the clerk to call the judge. He called the judge and told him that the money had been received. On this the judge said, ‘Okay, give me this money tomorrow.’ But now the ACB officials have sent the clerk behind the bars and laid a trap for the judge.
After the clerk’s arrest, the judge’s messages are now the main evidence.
Here, the judge, unaware of his arrest, was continuously calling the clerk and asking about the money. The judge doubted whether the clerk ran away with the money. ACB has read every message, and this is now the main evidence for the court. After this the ACB team raided the judge’s house. But the house was locked and the judge was missing.
This is not just a story of one Mumbai court, every lower court judge has such a clerk. Their job is exactly this – to demand and collect bribes on behalf of the judge. If they are caught, they never mention the name of the judge because when the case goes cold, the judge usually gets them out with his influence, @theskindoctor13 posted on Twitter regarding this incident.
Generally, judges should not be lured by money like this and should deliver verdicts impartially. For this reason the government provides them such facilities which no one else gets. Government house, servants for every work, and a good salary. Despite all this, if the judges here are involved in corruption, then who will listen to the problems of the common man?
What is the starting salary of a judge?
The starting salary of a lower court judge ranges from approximately Rs 1,44,840 to Rs 1,94,660 per month. Similarly, the salary of a District Judge increases to approximately Rs 1,63,030 to Rs 2,19,090 after a certain service period i.e. 5 years. Despite this, like the saying ‘darkness under the lamp’, here the very judges who give justice have embarked on the path of injustice, which makes one feel like asking where is justice?
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