Husband’s CBI case led wife to study law, fight his legal battle and write a book

In June 2006, when civil servant Pankaj was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case and sent to jail for two months, his wife Sweta began knocking on lawyers’ doors, looking for someone who could secure his release.

Instead, she says, the experience left her struggling to understand what was happening to her husband and increasingly frustrated with the way his case was being handled. That frustration eventually took her to law school, turning a wife seeking legal help into a lawyer who would go on to take charge of her husband’s case.

Their nearly two-decade journey, from Pankaj’s arrest and imprisonment to his eventual acquittal and Sweta’s decision to study law, is now the subject of his book, “My Lady in Black: Learning the Laws to Fight the Flaws”. Pankaj, now Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner (HQ) and head of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s public grievance vertical at the national level, says the book is his tribute to the woman who did not merely stand beside him but fought the legal battle with him.

Pankaj was eventually released on default bail after the CBI failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated period. But the legal battle was far from over.

Sweta, an MBA in finance with no family background in law, said her early experience with lawyers convinced her that she needed to understand the law herself.

“After the CBI arrested my husband, I met several advocates until he was granted bail. However, most of them did not explain what was happening in the case or whether he was likely to be released on bail,” she told HT.

She alleged that the lawyer they hired to secure bail took advantage of her lack of knowledge of legal procedures, demanded a hefty fee and did not tell her that, under certain conditions, bail could be granted by a lower court without approaching the high court. She also alleged that the lawyer invoked the possibility of other CBI proceedings to persuade her to pay more for his services.

“Although we hired this lawyer, I made up my mind that once my husband was released on bail, I would pursue law myself so that I could become legally capable of understanding and fighting his case,” she said.

Her frustration was not limited to the bail proceedings. Sweta said she felt that some lawyers took advantage of the lack of legal knowledge among clients and their families, particularly when they were emotionally vulnerable.

“I did not want to remain dependent on others for understanding my husband’s case, as they were also afraid of asking harsh questions to witnesses against the prosecution,” she said.

On one occasion, when the couple insisted on asking “hard questions” of a prosecution witness, Sweta recalled that their trial lawyer ridiculed them, saying: “Inhi se cross karwa lijiye (let her only do everything).”

In 2008, after Pankaj’s release, Sweta travelled to Patna and enrolled at Bihar University to study law. She qualified and was enrolled as a lawyer in 2011, eventually taking charge of Pankaj’s case.

For Pankaj, her decision transformed what had begun as his legal ordeal into a shared journey. “The book is about my story, but the spirit behind this is ‘this lady in black’. Hundreds of accused are there in different courts, but the lady, the accused’s wife, has been the pillar of the whole thing,” he said.

“She diverted her education and everything for something else. The inspiration was: my husband is there fighting, so I have to fight for my husband. It’s not that she was standing just beside me, but she was fighting with me and for me,” he added.

The court records, Pankaj said, preserve the facts of his case but not the emotion, uncertainty and preparation that accompanied the years-long battle. That is what he wanted to preserve through the book, published by PenManush and already picked up for film adaptation.

The couple would even rehearse court proceedings at home, with Pankaj playing the public prosecutor and Sweta appearing as defence counsel. “We used to do mock practice. I used to become a public prosecutor, she was defence counsel and then I used to ask her questions. We did all these things for so many years,” he said.

For Pankaj, the book was a way of giving his wife something more lasting than a conventional gift. “I could have given her a gift, said thank you, or taken her abroad, but all these things are transitory. This thing is for all times to come. It’s documented -- her emotion, her spirit, her fight, everything has been documented,” he said.

The book also takes Pankaj back to his arrest, the two months he spent in prison and his eventual acquittal.

Sweta went on to practise law, although she now takes up cases only occasionally. She also provides consultancy on cases involving the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, helping clients identify potential weaknesses in investigations and prosecution cases.

Pankaj says she has developed a particular eye for spotting such weaknesses. “She practises but very less. She has the knack of finding cases and whatever cases come to her, she finds the fault and gives it to the client,” he said.

For Sweta, the decision to study law was born of a simple desire to understand her husband’s case for herself and not remain dependent on others to fight it. For Pankaj, it became a story worth preserving. Together, their legal ordeal became “My Lady in Black”.