New Delhi: “Mahatma Gandhi is on fire brother” – a fireman’s frantic exclamation, captured on video, has become the focal point of the investigation into the fire that broke out at Justice Yashwant Verma’s official bungalow in the capital last year. At around 11.35 pm on March 14, police and fire personnel reached 30 Tughlaq Crescent (Verma’s residence) in Central Delhi. Two fire tenders were sent to the spot and they, along with police personnel, brought the fire in the store room under control within 15 minutes. This was supposed to be the end of an emergency response, but as first responders walked through the thin curtain of smoke, they were shocked – the store room contained, among other things, wads of partially burnt high denomination Indian currency notes. This comment, captured on video – a direct reference to the image of Gandhi on burnt Rs 500 notes – turned an emergency call into a scandal that reached the highest levels of the judiciary, besides leading to a young officer – who quickly realized the gravity of what happened to his men and alerted his superiors – being labeled a “whistleblower”, simply because he showed his presence of mind. By the afternoon of March 15, when Justice Verma was returning to the capital midway from his visit to the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora was already briefing Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyay about the incident. A formal report supported by WhatsApp video of the cash-laden wreck was sent to the Union Home Ministry.