'Mystery fire case': CBI filed FIR against Yashwant Varma way back in 2018

On February 22, 2018, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the federal anti-corruption agency, registered an FIR (RCBD1/2018/E/002) on allegations of committing a bank fraud against promoters and directors of the western Uttar Pradesh-based Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd.

In the list of 11 accused, at number 10 was the name of Yashwant Varma, who was shown as a non-executive director of the company.

But Yashwant Varma by then had been a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court -- from October 2014.

Varma’s current travails

The same Justice Varma is facing an inquiry regarding the alleged recovery of unaccounted cash from his official residence in the national capital on March 14. The Supreme Court has transferred him back to the Allahabad High Court where he was elevated as a judge from the bar. He was transferred to the Delhi High Court in 2021.

It is still a mystery how the CBI registered the FIR against a sitting judge of the high court without seeking any sanction from the chief justice of India.

The Supreme Court in the Veeraswamy case had clarified that no FIR can be lodged against a sitting judge of the high court or Supreme Court without the sanction of the chief justice of India.

Also Read: Who is Yashwant Varma, who is in news now?

A non-executive director

The query to the CBI about the status of the FIR against Simbhaoli and its promoters and directors remained unanswered.

A lawyer associated with Simbhaoli for other cases in the Allahabad High Court confirmed that it was indeed the same Yashwant Varma who once represented Simbhaoli as an advocate and later served as its non-executive director.

But he said that as a non-executive director, Varma had nothing to do with the day-to-day affairs of the company.

Political twist

The case has political ramifications too. One of the co-accused in the case against Simbhaoli, Gurpal Singh is son-in-law of former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Gurpal Singh was called for questioning within a month of registering the FIR.

In the FIR, registered on the complaint of Meerut-based assistant general manager of Oriental Bank of Commerce Manohar Dhingra, it was alleged that Simbhaoli, and its promoters and directors committed a fraud to the tune of Rs 97.85 crores in the name of payment to sugarcane farmers and a further loan of Rs 110 crores to repay the earlier loan. The period of first loan disbursal for sugarcane farmers was January to March 2012.

Payments to Varma

The Federal reviewed multiple regulatory filings which show that Yashwant Varma got retired by rotation at the annual general body meeting of company on July 31, 2013. He first became additional director of the company on June 30, 2009.

In the one regulatory filing, the company stated that Yashwant Varma was a reputed senior advocate practicing at the Allahabad High Court and in one financial year he was paid Rs 0.86 lakh towards professional fee including reimbursement of out of pocket expenses for various services rendered to the company and its subsidiaries.

Previous payment to the tune of Rs 3.71 lakh was also mentioned in the filing.

ED case

Following the registration of the CBI FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) too launched a money laundering probe in the matter. One of the accused in the ED case, Dr GSC Rao, was granted anticipatory bail by the Allahabad High Court in September last year, showing that the ED probe is still continuing.