Congress trying to build pressure for probe into Judge Loya’s death

Describing as highly suspicious the circumstances leading to the November 30, 2014, death of special CBI judge BH Loya hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, the Congress Party has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the matter.

A battery of Congress leaders led by ex-minister Kapil Sibal held a press conference along with with Nagpur-based advocate-activist Satish Uke and said Judge Loya had once complained to Uke about pressures around the case and sought his help to ease that pressure.

According to Congress, Uke had later tried to help Judge Loya through Delhi-based lawyer Prashant Bhushan who had, after looking at the evidence, said it was not enough to move court.

Kapil Sibal added, “In July 2017, Satish Uke came to me and spoke of how two Nagpur-based contacts of Judge Loya had approached him to help the latter in the case. At the time, I had kept this information to myself but now we are making it public.”

Sibal then mentioned how the two Nagpur-based contacts who had approached Uke later died in suspicious circumstances. “On November 29, 2015, one of these contacts was pushed off the eighth storey of the district court. On May 16, 2016, another died after falling off the upper sleeper berth of a train and broke his spine,” Sibal alleged, adding, “Satish Uke later escaped narrowly after 500 tonne iron mysteriously fell on his office-cum-shed in Nagpur.”

The Congress leader also raised questions about the events involving Judge Loya’s travel to Nagpur for a wedding and his death there.

“We have no travel record of Judge Loya’s journey to Nagpur – either by rail or air. We don’t also have a register entry showing Judge Loya or his friend Judge Modak staying at Ravi Bhavan in Nagpur. Judge Loya’s post-mortem was done without the consent of family,” Sibal alleged.

He asked why the security provided to Judge Loya was withdrawn in Mumbai from November 24, 2014, and not provided to him in Nagpur.