Liquor fuelled fire at judge's house that burnt cash: Report
Burnt pieces of Rs 500 notes 'found' near Justice Yashwant Varma's residence
NEW DELHI: The high-level judicial panel's inquiry report has said huge amounts of unexplained cash were found burnt in Justice Yashwant Varma's official residence on the night of March 14, as the fire that broke out inside the storeroom was fuelled by alcohol from bottles in a liquor cabinet inside the room.
A fireman, who was part of the team that doused the fire in the storeroom, had deposed that "while dousing, due to clinking of liquor bottles on the left side, the fire intensity increased on the right side of the store and while dousing the right side, the stacked material on the right side got wet and fell down and there were also currency notes visible on the floor".
In its report, the panel explained this thus, "The presence of liquor cabinet located close to the switch box is also a matter of record which has been noticed by the committee in its spot inspection and it is common knowledge that liquor is a highly volatile liquid and the bottles, having been affected by the fire, would have ignited and broken by the heat which are part of the debris being cleared, and leading to the tinkling sound.
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When the fire broke out in the bungalow's storeroom, Justice Varma was out of town and no one in the house, including his daughter and private secretary, had access to the key and the security guards had to break the lock to give access to firefighters and policemen, the report said.
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