'Judge Loya died natural death': Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking SIT probe

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of pleas seeking Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the death of special CBI Judge BH Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Loya had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. He was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, involving various police officers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, at the time of his death. 

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had on March 16 reserved the judgment on the pleas.

Rejecting the petitions seeking an independent probe into the matter, the apex court today said, "There is no reason to doubt statements of four judges on circumstances leading to the death of Loya and the documents placed on record and their scrutiny establishes that Loya's death was due to natural cause." 

The petition filed by the petitioners and intervenors was an attempt to scandalise the judiciary, the bench said. 

"There is no merit in the petitions and there is no reason to doubt the statements of sitting Judges, attempt of the petitioners was to malign the judiciary," the top court said. 

The top court said that with these petitions it becomes clear that a real attempt and a frontal attack was made on the independence of the judiciary.

The apex court said frivolous and motivated litigation has been filed to settle political rivalry.

Maharashtra-based journalist BS Lone and activist Tehseen Poonavala had filed independent pleas seeking a fair probe into the death of Judge Loya. Senior advocates Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising, V Giri, PS Surendranath and Pallav Shishodia along with advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioners.

Maharashtra, which had submitted a 50-page intelligence report that included four affidavits signed by judges of the Bombay High Court, was represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Harish Salve along with Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Concluding the arguments for Maharashtra, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi attacked the conspiracy theories put forth by petitioners and targeted an online news portal over their November 2017 article which had first raised the question on judge Loya's death. Rohatgi termed the news articles covering the issue as 'innuendos' and the PILs seeking an investigation as a 'facade'.

The Maharashtra government added that the batch of petitions seeking an independent investigation were nothing but an attempt to target "one individual" (BJP president Amit Shah) in the guise of upholding the rule of law. Rohatgi suggested that the idea behind the petitions were to keep the 'pot boiling'.

The issue of Loya's death had come under spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it and its link to the Sohrabuddin case.

But Loya's son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes.

In the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, BJP President Amit Shah along with Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin have already been discharged.

Several accused, including police personnel, are currently facing trial for their involvement in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their associate Tulsiram Prajapati in Gujarat in November 2005.

The case was later transferred to CBI and the trial shifted to Mumbai.

(With PTI inputs)