Supreme Court: Concerned with B H Loya's death, won't go into other issues

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The Supreme Court yesterday gave a "loud and clear" message that it was concerned only with the death of special CBI judge B H Loya and would not go into other aspects including BJP chief Amit Shah's discharge in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The apex court, which is hearing the petitions seeking an independent investigation into Loya's death in 2014, made it clear that the issue before it was whether further probe should be ordered into it or not. Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

After Loya's death, special judge M B Gosavi, who took over the trial, had discharged Shah and some other accused. When the petitions seeking an independent probe into Loya's death came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, one of the advocates said he had filed a plea in the Bombay High Court, which has now been transferred to the apex court. He said he had made Shah one of the respondents.

When the lawyer sought that notices should be issued on his plea, the bench said, "We will permit you to argue. There is no question of issuing notice." "We are only concerned with the death of the judge. We are not on other cases at all. This message must go loud and clear," the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said.

Loya's death came under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it, and its possible link to the Sohrabuddin case. However, Loya's son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes and that the family didn't want any further probe.

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