New Delhi: Calling them frivolous and “bereft of any truth”, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected pleas seeking an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Mumbai judge Brijgopal Harikishan Loya in 2014 around the time when he was hearing the Sohrabuddin “fake” encounter case that involved BJP chief Amit Shah as a suspect.
Holding that there are enough materials to suggest that Loya died of natural causes, the top court took exception to the bid by some petitioners to politicise the case and scandalise the judiciary.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, called the petitions an attempt to scandalise the judiciary and slammed attempts where “political rivalry is brought to court to malign judiciary”.
Rejecting a batch of pleas, including those filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala and Maharashtra-based B.S. Lone, seeking an independent probe into Loya’s death, the bench said, “We have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no merit in the writ petitions. There is no reason for the court to doubt the clear and consistent statements of the four judicial officers (who were with Loya the time of death).”
Loya died allegedly of cardiac arrest on December 1, 2014 in Nagpur where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter. The judge who took over the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case discharged Mr Shah later.
