Chandigarh: A special CBI court on Saturday acquitted retired Justice Nirmal Yadav and three others in the 2008 ``cash at judge’s door’’ case citing the prosecution’s failure to prove charges against them.

Besides Justice Yadav, the others acquitted in the case include Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh, Rajiv Gupta and Nirmal Singh. Another accused, Sanjiv Bansal, the former additional advocate general of Haryana, had passed away during the trial.

The charges against Justice Yadav were that the cash was allegedly a payback for a favourable judgement in a property dispute in Panchkula in 2007 in favour of Sanjeev Bansal and others. She went on leave after her name figured in the case and was subsequently shifted to Uttarakhand High Court.

The case hogged the limelight when a bag containing Rs 15 lakh was mistakenly delivered at the residence of another judge of the high court, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur instead of Justice Nirmal Yadav.

It so happened when Amrik Singh, a peon at Justice Kaur’s residence, in his complaint to police said one Parkash Ram had come to Justice Kaur’s house with a plastic bag on August 13, 2008 and said that ``papers had come from Delhi for Justice Kaur''.

He took the bag inside and opened it on Justice Kaur’s instruction only to find that it had currency notes following which the Chandigarh police was called which took Parkash and the bag into its custody. The police registered a case on August 16, 2008 and later the administration handed over the case to the CBI on August 26, 2008.

The CBI filed a closure report in the case in 2009 saying that no case was made out, though the CBI court had then rejected it directing CBI to reinvestigate the case. Subsequently, the CBI filed the charge sheet in the case on April 18, 2011 stating that the bag was intended for Justice Yadav but was taken to Justice Kaur’s house due to similarity in the names.

According to the CBI, Ravinder Singh was supposed to send the said cash to Justice Nirmal Yadav on August 13, 2008, and gave the money to Sanjiv Bansal in Delhi asking him to deliver the same to Justice Yadav. Bansal who was on his way to Chandigarh from Delhi called his wife asking her to send the amount from their home to Justice Yadav through his ``munshi’’ Parkash. However, since he was told to deliver it to ``Nirmal ji’’, he inadvertently went to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur’s residence.

Though the CBI court had framed charges against all the accused on January 18, 2014, Justice Yadav’s counsel Vishal Garg Narwana, claimed she was falsely implicated in the case; notably the CBI had earlier filed a closure report in the case in 2009.

The CBI court judge Alka Malik acquitted all the accused due to lack of evidence.