Chandigarh, July 09: A local court will hear graft case allegedly involving against suspended Judicial Magistrate S S Bhardwaj, suspended Jalandhar district and sessions Judge R M Gupta. Additional district and sessions Judge R S Vaswana after hearing arguments from both sides adjourned the matter till today.

The CBI had, on June 28, moved an application stating that it had cassettes with it in which there is a taped conversation between Bhardwaj and Gupta "striking deals" and the agency wanted to record the voice of the two judicial officials. The defence pleaded that it had not received the notice issued by the court on the CBI's application, directing that the two officials be produced before the court today.

Both Gupta and Bhardwaj are in judicial custody. CBI had laid a trap for the two judicial officials on a complaint of a Kartarpur-based medical practitioner G S Samra on the intervening night of May 9 and 10. Gupta was arrested on the same day from his residence here, whereas Bhardwaj "surrendered" on June 10 after his bail plea was rejected by a local court, high court and the apex court.

Bureau Report