The Justice Yashwant Varma episode reminds me of the Dreyfus affair in France, in which an innocent man suffered terribly due to false allegations against him.
For several days I have been considering the incident relating to Justice Varma, and now I am convinced he is innocent, and it was a set up by someone, and he has been framed.
I have written a short piece about this.
"I spoke to several lawyers of Delhi today about Justice Yashwant Varma.
They all said two things :
(1) He had an outstanding reputation as a judge, patient, impartial, and learned in law, and there had never been any conplaint about his integrity during his 4 year tenure as a Judge in Delhi High Court.
(2) The incident was clearly a set up. If someone wanted to give him a huge amount of bribe, would he have done it in such a crude manner of giving it in sacks of cash which could easily be caught?
The money seems to have been planted, in collusion with someone on Justice Varma’s staff.
Various theories are circulating about the motive for the set up."
It is true I have known Justice Varma's family in Allahabad for three generations, and therefore can be accused of bias in his favour.
But as a judge for 20 years I have built up a mindset of looking at things objectively, detached from any bias.
As I mentioned above, I met several Delhi lawyers, and they all spoke highly of him as an outstanding judge, having all the qualities of a great judge—patience, courtesy, integrity, and deep knowledge of law.
As regards the incident in question, a simple question should be asked: will anyone take bribe of a huge amount in such a crude manner and keep sacks of cash in an outhouse where it can be easily discovered? The very idea is preposterous. One would get it deposited in a secret haven abroad, or take it in the form of a flat or other property in Dubai, Singapore, or elsewhere.
In my opinion, Justice Varma is one of the most outstanding judges in India, and he has been framed, pilloried and subjected to a vicious, savage, and excruciating media trial by our largely worthless Indian media.
This being the case, I thought it my duty to act the way the great French writer Emile Zola did when he discovered that Captain Dreyfus, an innocent man, had been wrongly framed, and pronounce against the Indian media 'J'accuse'.
Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
