CHANDIGARH: Former Judicical Magistrate First Class (JMIC) SS Bhardwaj was sentenced to one year jail for evading arrest in 2003 after the CBI had raided his residence in a Rs 7 lakh graft case .Bhardwaj has the dubious distinction of being the first Indian judge to be convicted in a graft case.
A lower court had earlier acquitted him of the charge of evading arrest against which the state had field an appeal. Theappeal was accepted by an Additional District and Sessions judge The convict has also been directd to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. Bhardwaj along with District and sessions judge RM Gupta was accussed of demanding a bribe of Rs 11 lakh for passing favorable orders on an anticpatory bails application pending in Gupta ‘s court in 2003.
Bhardwaj had escaped from his residence on may 10, 2003, after he was caught taking Rs 7 lakh from a complainant to help him in a matter. He was arrested a month later and faced traile in both cases graft case and under sections 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehenion) of the IPC.
In May 2009, the special CBI court here hadconvicted Bhardwaj and awarded him a three year jail.
The former jufge challenged the verdict and the matter is pending in the hight court however in february 2014, a JMIC court here had acquitted Bhardwaj in the resistance to arrest case. The state had field an appeal and the same was decided on september19.