A panel of judges constituted by the chief justice of India began an inquiry on Monday into the allegation that a Rajasthan high court official had sought sexual favours from a woman running a health clinic for settling a pending court case.

The three-member panel of judges comprises Chief Justice B K Rai of the Punjab and Haryana high court, Justice Devendra Gupta of the Delhi high court, and Justice Aftab Alam of the Patna high court.

The judges, who arrived in Jodhpur on Monday morning, held an in-camera sitting and heard the complainant, Sunita Malviya, the accused Govind Kalwani, deputy registrar of the Rajasthan high court, and eyewitnesses.

Malviya claimed that Kalwani had visited her clinic two months back and asked her to sleep with him and a high court judge with whom he spoke on a mobile phone for settling the case in her favour. The witnesses were hiding at the time in a connected room. Additional Divisional Commissioner Prabha Tak is among the witnesses.

The accused, who denied the charge as a conspiracy against him, has already been suspended from service by the high court after the Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case and launched a full-fledged investigation against him after a preliminary inquiry.

The ACB has already recorded the statements of Malviya, the accused, and the witnesses. It is, however, yet to decide whether to seek the statement of the judge with whom Kalwani spoke.

The team of judges is likely to speak to the judge concerned. The complainant had sent a copy of her complaint to the chief justice of India.

The panel also spoke to the editor of a local periodical in which the incident was first reported. Sources connected with the probe said two audiocassettes carrying the recordings of Kalwani's conversation have been produced before the panel.