In a fresh development in the Justice Soumitra Sen impeachment process, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has written to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Hamid Ansari to bring some new facts to his notice in connection with the case.

Chatterjee acknowledged he had written to Ansari, but declined to give details.

“Yes, I have written to the Vice President about the matter concerning Justice Soumitra Sen. There were certain things that needed to be brought to his notice. But I can’t tell you anything more. You ask the Vice President,” he told The Indian Express.

Sources said that in his letter, the former Speaker has questioned the move to impeach Sen. The facts that he is learnt to have highlighted support Sen’s defence against the impeachment motion.

The motion to impeach Sen, which was admitted on February 27, seeks his removal for “misappropriating large sums of money which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the (Calcutta) High Court and misrepresenting facts with regard to the misappropriation before the High Court.”

In his legal opinion, Union Law Secretary T K Vishwanathan had said that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against Sen.

A three-member committee comprising Supreme Court Judge B Sudershan Reddy, Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and jurist Fali Nariman was constituted on March 20 under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 to consider the charges and evidence against Sen, and recommend further action.

The decision to constitute the committee was taken after 58 Rajya Sabha members, following up on a move initiated by CPM MP Brinda Karat, moved the impeachment motion against Sen on the basis of a recommendation sent by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August last year.

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