CBI judge Brijgopal Harkishan loya, hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, died of heart attack due to natural cause, the Supreme Court categorically ruled on Thursday putting an end to the speculation raised by a bunch of petitions that alleged that he was murdered.
In a hard-hitting order, a three-judge Bench trashed every charge made in the petitions filed by Congress spokesperson Tehseen Poonawala, lawyer associations, a journalist, and individual citizens, but stopped short of initiating criminal contempt against the lawyers who represented them despite holding that the petitions scandalised the judiciary by leveling false charges.
The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, while dismissing the petitions, sought to expose the machinations of the petitioners as a “veiled attempt” to weaken the independence and credibility of judicial institutions and warned that political and business rivalries must be fought outside court and PIls should not become instruments to settle personal scores. In its final conclusion, the Bench held that documentary material and statement of witnesses were “clear and consistent” that the death of judge loya was due to natural causes and merits no further enquiry.
The judge’s death made national news as the Sohrabuddin encounter case which he was hearing had BJP president Amit Shah as one of the accused. Though judge loya died on December 1, 2014, the controversy surrounding his death surfaced in November 2017 when news magazine Caravan published two articles raising doubts on the theory that loya died a natural death. On the fateful day, loya was at Nagpur to attend a family wedding of a colleague. On complaint of chest pain, four district judges accompanying him took him to a local hospital. From there, he was referred to a cardiac specialty hospital where he breathed his last.
The petitions did not believe that loya died of heart attack. They alleged murder and sought to project the four judges as “co-conspirators”. The SC conducted extensive hearing of the case. A discreet enquiry conducted by the Maharashtra Government concluded that his death was due to natural cause. As part of the enquiry, statements of four judges were taken and all medical records examined. All this was submitted before the court.