Senior advocate Fali Nariman has written to former justice V R Krishna Iyer supporting his call for a judicial probe into allegations of unaccounted wealth accumulated by ex-CJI (Chief Justice of India) Balakrishnan’s relatives as another such case is being brought to fore.

“Your prompt and pithily devastating remarks on the conduct of National Human Rights Commission Chairman K G Balakrishnan deserves several rounds of applause. We all are deeply beholden to you for always reminding judges, past and present, that honour comes first,” the Indian Express newspaper quoted from Nariman’s letter to Iyer.

It has now been reported that a 60-acres land located in a Kerala district was purchased by Balakrishanan’s brother between 2005 and 2007 just days after similar accusations against his son-in-law made news last week.

Balakrishnan’s brother Bhaskaran who’s serving as a Government pleader in Kerala High Court, however, defended himself on having bought the land in question and said he had paid for it from his personal savings.

The Indian Express reported:

When contacted, Bhaskaran said that he had bought the land for Rs 18 lakh in 2005. ‘We used our savings and also took loan from bank. The land is used for growing gooseberry and guava.’

Playing the Dalit card, Bhaskaran said the allegations were the agenda of an upper class lobby, which had been there right from the day his brother joined the judicial service. ‘What is wrong in lower class people buying land? A section in the society wants that we should be destined to toil in the land of others. There is a vested interest group which wants to tarnish Balakrishnan,’ he said, adding that the property deal in Tamil Nadu was a transparent transaction through bank and there was nothing illegal in it.