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Chandigarh: Former Pathankot district and sessions judge Tejwinder Singh, who conducted the trial for the January 2018 gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old Kathua girl, is under the scanner for alleged corruption and misconduct, ThePrint has learnt.

According to sources in the Punjab & Haryana High Court, the chief justice has ordered a preliminary inquiry into complaints against Singh.

“There were complaints and information from independent sources against him, with specific instances of serious misconduct,” one of the sources said.

“The charges are very serious. Once the inquiry is done, the issue will be examined by the high court and further action will be initiated. In view of the seriousness of the charges, if found true, he can even be given compulsory retirement.”

The allegations against Singh, the sources said, include accepting favours from litigants and lavish expenses on the construction of a house without taking mandatory permissions. Alleged close links between his relatives and businessmen are also a matter of investigation, the sources said.

ThePrint reached Singh through calls and messages but there was no response until the time of publishing this report. The copy will be updated when he responds.

In December last year, Singh was transferred from the Pathankot court and posted as presiding officer in the Industrial Tribunal at Jalandhar, a low-key post. The sources confirmed that the transfer came after the high court had decided to initiate an inquiry against Singh.

The vigilance committee of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, headed by senior Judge Daya Chaudhary, is abreast of developments in the matter and has been closely monitoring the case, the sources said.

Also read: Patna HC judge, who was taken off duty after ‘corruption’ remark, reassigned judicial work

In line for elevation to high court

As the presiding judge in the Kathua case, one of the most high-profile criminal incidents in recent years, Singh courted national headlines.

The case involved the abduction, gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic Muslim girl and developed communal overtones as police alleged her killing was aimed at ejecting her community from the Kathua village where it occurred.

A few Jammu leaders of the BJP had even carried out marches in support of the accused, seeking a CBI investigation, and questioned the J&K Police’s probe as biased — with the case bringing out traditional tensions between Hindu-majority Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir. Two of these leaders were ministers in the erstwhile PDP-BJP state government and they were eventually forced to resign by the BJP.

Singh delivered the verdict in the case in June 2019, sentencing three accused to life imprisonment, three others to five years, and acquitting a seventh. The eighth is believed to have been a minor when the crime occurred, and is facing proceedings under the juvenile jurisprudence framework.

Before his stint in Pathankot, Singh was posted as district and sessions judge in Bathinda. This tenure was marked by controversy as it witnessed an over-month-long strike by the local bar association in 2015 seeking action against a few judicial officers for alleged corruption and misbehaviour.

His wife Kamaldeep Bhandari also found herself in a row when she was appointed a state information commissioner in BJP-led Haryana two days before the model code of conduct kicked in for the Lok Sabha polls. The trial into the Kathua case was still underway at the time.

Singh is one of two senior judicial officers who are being investigated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for alleged corruption or misconduct — the other is former Gurgaon district and sessions judge Ravi Kumar Sondhi, who is currently posted at Narnaul.

As an additional district and sessions judge in Chandigarh in 2007, Sondhi had issued the death penalty to two terrorists involved in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

Both Singh and Sondhi are among the most senior judicial officers in Punjab and Haryana and believed to be in line for eventual elevation to the high court.

Also read: Justice Markandey Katju on why shoving corruption by judges under the carpet won’t help

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