The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Former Justice D.S.R. Varma filed a criminal case against two scammers in Hyderabad on Tuesday (February 27) for duping his family and collecting Rs 2.5 crore for issuing electoral bonds.
“Mr. Narendran, who is a known person of our relatives took advantage of his introduction and came to me and sought for some amounts to the party in the centre which will be acknowledged by the way of bonds,” Varma wrote in his complaint filed in Hyderabad’s Film Nagar police station.
“Believing his words, my daughters, my wife have sent through bank to a total sum of Rs 2.5 crores from time to time in the year 2021 which can be seen from the text messages of [WhatsApp],” the 72-year-old retired judge, who served in the Andhra Pradesh and Allahabad high courts, added.
Speaking to The News Minute, Verma mentioned that one of the two men he complained against, Anil (whose name was changed for the purposes of the report), was known to his son-in-law and they claimed to be ‘important leaders’ in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Also read: Humiliation and the Upending of Poll Narratives: The Impact of the SC’s Electoral Bonds Judgment
In its report, The News Minute also pointed out that Anil’s LinkedIn profile mentions that he is a coordinator for the World Hindu Congress and part of the World Hindu Economic Forum, an organisation that works closely with the RSS.
However, Anil denied the judge’s claim and asserted that he has “no connections with RSS or BJP,” according to The News Minute.
In his complaint, Varma mentioned that the scammers claimed that they would purchase electoral bonds with the money and in exchange would “place him and his grandchildren in [the] US decently”.
As per The News Minute, the retired judge said that his two grandchildren have completed their postgraduate studies in the US.
“The common grievance of my family including me is that in spite of correcting [collecting] huge amounts no bonds have been issued to us in spite of my requests, nor any favour was done either to me or to my grand children in US, which is nor very relevant or significant,” Varma wrote in the police complaint.
He added: “This is a clear violation of the recent judgement of the supreme court deprecating the collection of amounts by way of electoral bounds. In the present case ispite [in spite] of my insistence for issuing me bonds no such thing had happened. The said collection of amounts for about 2.5 crores, with out issuing any bonds indicates that the said amounts was misappropriated for their self.”
According to The News Minute report, the retired judge said that he paid everything in “white” (legal money).
“Despite asking several times over the last two years, they did not issue the bonds,” the judge told the news portal.