Fire officials, cops among 10 eyewitnesses who saw cash at Justice Varma's house

A Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel has, for the first time, named the 10 eyewitnesses who saw large quantities of cash inside the store room of Justice Yashwant Varma's official residence in Delhi.

The list includes fire officials, police officers, and personnel from the child rights body: Ankit Sehwag, Pradeep Kumar, Manoj Mehlawat, Bhanwar Singh, Pravindra Malik, and Suman Kumar — all officers from the Delhi Fire Service (DFS); Rajesh Kumar and Umesh Malik from Tughlaq Road police station; Roop Chand, a head constable; and Sunil Kumar, an officer from the Indian Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ICPCR).

The panel found that these eyewitnesses saw stacks of currency notes — reportedly piled 1.5 feet high — in the aftermath of a fire at the judge’s residence in March. One witness described being "shocked and surprised" by the sheer volume of cash, saying it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Despite the discovery, Justice Varma made no effort to report the matter to police or judicial authorities, the panel noted. "No plausible explanation has been given. The judge’s claim of lack of knowledge is unbelievable," it said.

The panel also flagged what it called "unnatural conduct" by the judge, highlighting how the store room — access to which was exclusively controlled by Justice Varma and his family — was later cleaned out and the cash disappeared. Visual evidence reportedly showed some notes were half-burnt.

Rejecting Justice Varma’s defence that the entire episode was a conspiracy to malign him, the inquiry committee stated: “Currency notes were seen by multiple people and recorded in real time. It is implausible they were planted to frame him.”

The committee concluded there was "sufficient substance" in the allegations against the Allahabad High Court judge and has recommended his removal.

Justice Varma, who was transferred back to the Allahabad High Court following the incident, has not been allotted any judicial work since. He has neither resigned nor taken voluntary retirement and continues to claim the process against him is “fundamentally unjust.”