Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Nov 23: Judge Brijgopal Harikishan Loya of the Special CBI Court in Mumbai, met with an untimely and 'suspicious' demise in 2014. His family has now alleged that he was offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore for a judgement in favour of BJP chief Amit Shah, a few weeks before his death.
An investigative report published in The Caravan magazine on Monday has brought to light several discrepancies in the hearing of Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Amit Shah was the prime accused.
Loya’s sister Anuradha Biyani told Caravan that her brother was approached by the then Bombay High Court Chief Justice Mohit Shah to provide a favourable judgement in the case for a bribe of Rs 100 crore.
The article also quotes Loya’s sister Anuradha Biyani as saying that Mohit Shah J would pressure her brother into delivering a favourable verdict in the case. According to her, Mohit Shah J, “would call him late at night to meet in civil dress and pressure him to issue the judgment as soon as possible and to ensure that it is a positive judgment.
Judge Loya’s father Harkishan also spoke to Caravan. Harkishan revealed that his son had also confided in him about the bribery.
Further, Loya’s son Anuj had written a letter referring to Mohit Shah J, “I asked him to set up an enquiry commission for dad’s death. I fear that to stop us from doing anything against them, they can harm anyone of our family members. There is threat to our lives…if anything happens to me or my family, chief justice Mohit Shah and others involved in the conspiracy will be responsible.”
On December 1, 2014, the family members of Loya received calls informing them that the 48-year-old judge had died after suffering a massive cardiac arrest.
After Loya’s death, MB Gosavi was appointed to the Sohrabuddin case. Gosavi began hearing the case on 15 December 2014. “He heard the defence lawyers argue for three days to discharge Amit Shah of all the charges, while the CBI, the prosecuting agency, argued for 15 minutes,” Mihir Desai, who represented Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin—the complainant in the case told the magazine. “He concluded the hearing on 17 December and reserved his order.”
On December 30, around one month after Loya’s death, Gosavi upheld the defence’s argument that the CBI had political motives for implicating the accused. With that, he discharged Amit Shah.
Biyani also claims that Mohit Shah told her brother that if “the judgment is delivered before 30 December, it won’t be under focus at all because at the same time, there was going to be another explosive story which would ensure that people would not take notice of this.”
The manner in which the trial took place itself has been called into question. The fact that three different judges heard the case was a direct violation of a Supreme Court. Before Loya, Judge J T Utpat was presiding over the case. As Amit Shah failed to appear in the court even once, Utpat had ordered the BJP leader to present himself on June 26. But one day before that, on June 25, 2014, he was transferred to the Pune sessions court.
Suspicious Death of Loya
According the Caravan, Loya’s family was told that he had died of cardiac arrest.
Anuradha Biyani notes that Dande Hospital, where Loya was taken as an “obscure place”. She later came to know that the electrocardiograph (ECG) unit at the Hospital was not working. Biyani, herself a government doctor, told Caravan that she had taken down notes in a personal diary that she maintained, regarding the condition in which Loya’s body was brought. The diary entry read, “There was blood on his collar. His belt was twisted in the opposite direction, and the pant clip is broken. Even my uncle feels that this is suspicious.”
Biyani also pointed to the fact that Loya’s body was delivered unaccompanied by anyone except the driver of the ambulance, which is highly unusual for any public servant.
Biyani was quoted as saying, “The two judges who had insisted that he travel to Nagpur for the marriage had not accompanied him. Barde, who informed the family of his death and his post-mortem, had not accompanied him. This question haunts me: why was his body not accompanied by anyone?” According to the article, one of her diary entries reads, “He was a CBI court judge, he was supposed to have security and he deserved to be properly accompanied.”
Loya’s wife and son are reported to have declined to speak, saying they feared for their lives. The statements from the other family members also come three years after Loya’s death.