The Maharashtra Government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the electrocardiogram (ECG) report of deceased Judge BH loya did show that the machine was functional contrary to allegations that the hospital where he was first brought did not have an ECG machine. However, the State hinted at the possibility that one or two nodes of the ECG machine may have not functioned at the time when the report was prepared.
The ECG report has been a crucial document to suspect foul play behind the untimely death of loya, who died on December 1, 2014 after suffering a massive heart attack. Four petitioners who have filed PIl regarding the Judge's death have alleged foul play as the Judge was at the relevant point of time hearing a politically sensitive case relating to the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused.
The Maharashtra Government, appearing through senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted that he report of ECG does not indicate that the ECG machine at Dande Hospital in Nagpur was not functional. "It is possible that one or two nodes of the machine did not function and the doctor was trying to fix the machine when loya was wheeled in," Rohatgi added. However, Dande Hospital could not cater to the emergency and the Judge was shifted to Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences, where he was declared brought dead. It was claimed by the State Government that the Judge died a natural death and a "T wave" in his ECG report indicated incidence of heart attack.
But the petitioners led by senior advocates Indira Jaising and Dushyant Dave countered saying, "The State needs to be fair in its disclosure. Nobody is saying that the ECG was not done. But the fact is the machine did not work." Dave pointed out that pressure is being created on the lawyers appearing in the PIl showing notice issued to him by the Bar Council of India (BCI) for appearing in one of the PIls filed by Bombay lawyers Association.
The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, "We are not questioning your bonafide. An incident has taken place and you have brought it to our notice. You can argue with absolute freedom and we will go into every detail of the case. lot of things are being said outside the Court but this Court has been nominated to ensure that any such event, if it has indeed occurred, is seriously looked into. We are definitely treating it as a serious cause and will see if any fact arouses our conscience."