In Uttar Pradesh, a special CBI court at Ghaziabad has issued non-bailable arrest warrants against three persons accused in multi-crore Provident Fund scam at district court Ghaziabad.The court has fixed 31st of this month as the next date of hearing in the case.The court has also rejected arguments of six retired judges from the Allahabad High Court and district courts for not appearing before the court. The CBI court has issued summons to the judges for appearing before it but none of them had appeared even though a charge sheet had been filed against them. They had moved applications expressing their inability to appear in the court citing old age and ill health. The CBI had approached the court seeking issue of arrest warrants against these former judges alleging that they were not cooperating in the investigation.The CBI filed a chargesheet against 78 people, including three former judges of Allahabad High Court and three district judges in the case.The scam was exposed after special CBI judge Rama Jain had lodged a criminal case against 70 people at Kavi Nagar police station in Ghaziabad in February 2008, following which key accused Ashutosh Asthana was arrested. He died in mysterious circumstances in Dasna jail.