Graft case: Court orders defreezing a/c of suspended lady judge

A special court on Tuesday ordered defreezing of short term deposits (STD) of a suspended senior civil judge who, along with her lawyer husband, are accused in an alleged bribery case.

The court said these STDs were generated from the salary account of Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, who was a senior civil judge at Tis Hazari Court, and all the funds generated from it should be released. Her savings account was defrozen earlier.

The court noted that CBI did not file any reply to the plea despite given an opportunity.

Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal noted that all the STDs were generated from the saving account which was the primary source of funds.

“Accordingly, the application stands disposed off. SBI, Tis Hazari, is directed to defreeze the other accounts of the applicant emanating from her salary account,” the court said.

The woman judge, her husband Alok Lakhanpal, a practicing lawyer, and Vishal Mehan, advocate-cum-local commissioner (LC), were arrested by CBI on September 28, 2016. The judge was suspended after her arrest. They were later granted bail.