As he comes under a cloud after he was booked for trying to bribe a judge of the High Court, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, colleagues confess the allegations don’t surprise them.

Enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana in 1992, Bansal is the son of a retired chief engineer from Punjab. He started out as a junior to one of the seniormost advocates of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Rajiv Atma Ram, and surprisingly soon had a long list of rich clients. His first cases all dealt with service matters of government employees.

It was in Ram’s office that he would meet his future wife, Renu, who was also junior to the senior advocate. Incidentally, Renu also worked as a junior with Nirmaljit Kaur when she was practising as an advocate in the High Court before her elevation as a judge.

Bansal started his independent practice in 1992 and from service matters, slowly graduated to a variety of cases. His client list sported names of big industrialists, politicians and VIPs. He mostly dealt in civil disputes, and did not have much practice in the field of criminal litigation.

His client list also prominently included religious leaders from various parts of Haryana. There was hardly a high-profile case pertaining to a mahant, be it a murder case or bail application, that was not contested by Bansal.

For all his prominent cases or perhaps because of them, Bansal never enjoyed a very good reputation in the High Court. “His practice increased day by day. You would never find him arguing small cases. He would always represent the big fish, be it a service matter or a civil appeal,” says a senior advocate on the condition of anonymity. Questions were also raised about his “proximity” with several high court judges.

In 2005, Bansal was made Additional Advocate General by the newly elected Bhupinder Singh Hooda government. He was also nominated as a member of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana for one year. Since he was booked, Bansal has quit as Additional Advocate General.

The appointment came as no surprise as Bansal had close ties with senior Congress leaders. He was known to fund their rallies and campaigns and some reports claimed he had gifted an expensive SUV (sports utility vehicle) to a senior Congress leader in 2006.

Bansal himself owns two Mitsubishi Pajeros and one Mitsubishi Montero.

Meanwhile, a lookout notice has been issued against Bansal, the police said on Tuesday. “Yesterday, we issued lookout notices against Bansal and a Delhi businessman Ravinder Singh, but both of them have failed to turn up so far and join investigations,” Madhur Verma, Additional Superintendent of Police (Central), said in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

Bansal’s mobile phone call details are being scrutinised to ascertain with whom he was in touch before the alleged crime, the police said, adding his bank account is also being checked. Police teams had been sent to Delhi and some other places to trace Bansal and the businessman.

The police have assured High Court Chief Justice T S Thakur that the case would be cracked by Thursday. The High Court Bar Association president Rupinder Khosla, along with members of the Bar, met the Chief Justice on Monday in this regard.

Parkash, the munshi, who allegedly delivered the amount to the Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act a few days ago. The former Additional Advocate General had earlier claimed that his clerk had wrongly delivered the money at the residence of the judge instead of giving it to a realtor as advance for a property deal.

A munshi and a businessman

•Parkash Ram, a junior munshi (assistant) associated with Sanjeev Bansal for more than six years, is currently in custody. It was Parkash Ram who had gone to deliver a packet containing Rs 15 lakh at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur. Senior munshi, Jai Parkash, associated with Sanjeev Bansal for more than a decade, is missing reportedly to avoid police interrogation.

“We are shocked to learn that Parkash had been arrested. He was a dedicated worker and enjoyed a good reputation in the high court,” said a senior munshi. However, as per sources, it was Parkash Ram who used to be assigned ‘personal’ work by Bansal, while Jai Parkash was always assigned court work.

The UT Police has been unable to arrest Ravinder Singh, the Delhi-based businessman, till date. As per police sources, Ravinder runs a hotel in Karol Bagh, New Delhi, and has close reltions with several high court and Supreme Court judges.

Cases contested by Bansal

•Appeared on behalf of the Haryana state in the case pertaining to 16 Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers whose repatriation was stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week.

•Represented the state in the infamous case of manipulations in HCS selections dating back to the year 2002. The High Court had hauled up the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) for awarding less marks in the interview to candidates who had secured the maximum marks in the written test and vice-a-versa.

•The Haryana Government incidentally got no reprieve in either of the cases, instead earning a High Court rap.