Judge Loya's death: Congress failed to end Shah's political career says BJP

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that there would be no independent probe into the death of special CBI judge B H Loya

A political slugfest erupted on Thursday over Supreme Court's verdict dismissing petitions seeking a SIT probe into the death of Judge B.H. Loya, with the BJP accusing Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the "invisible hand" behind the pleas for "character assasination" of its chief Amit Shah while Gandhi attacked Shah, saying truth has its own way of catching up with people like him. Soon after the court verdict, senior BJP leaders including Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad alleging that the pleas were a conspiracy by the Congress and its President to finish the political career of Shah. Addressing a press conference, Prasad said: "This was not a PIL. Basically, it was filed to promote the interest of Congress. It was filed to cause damage to Amit Shah in particular." Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to attack Congress, saying that the judiciary has sent a message that it cannot be misled by allegations based on political vendetta.

"It is extremely unfortunate that there have been several attempts of targeting the BJP and assassinating the character of its top leaders on the basis of 'fake facts'. These attempts have failed miserably once again," he said, adding that the apex court has not only rejected the PIL pertaining to Justice Loya's death but also raised serious questions on the intention of filing such PILs.

BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra said the "invisible hand" behind the petition was of the Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi and they should apologise to the country for defaming the judiciary. Gandhi also took to Twitter to respond to BJP's charges.

"Indians are deeply intelligent. Most Indians, including those in the BJP, instinctively understand the truth about Mr Amit Shah. The truth has its own way of catching up with people like him," he said. His party meanwhile rejected the "natural death" theory of judge Loya and said it was a "sad letter day" in India's history and reiterated its demand for a "fair" investigation.

In the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, BJP President Amit Shah, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin, have already  been discharged.

Here are the top 10 developments as Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking an independent probe into CBI judge B H Loya's death:

1) SC rejects claim that judge Loya's ECG not done at Dande hospital: The Supreme Court rejected the claim of activist- lawyer Prashant Bhushan that no electrocardiogram (ECG) of judge B H Loya was conducted at Nagpur's Dande hospital, where he was initially taken for treatment after he complained of chest pain.

The apex court said that the mention of an ECG in the progress notes of the doctor at Meditrina hospital, where he was taken later, indicated that the procedure was carried out at Dande hospital.

2) SC ruling defeated Congress plan to end Shah's career: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said the Supreme Court's ruling on deceased special CBI court judge B H Loya has "defeated" the Congress' conspiracy to "finish" the political career of BJP chief Amit Shah.

He said the Congress had earlier attempted to target Shah in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case.

"This was the second attempt of the Congress to end Shah's political career. When the Congress and Rahul Gandhi failed to win hearts of the people, they decided to rake up an unfortunate death (of judge Loya). They filed a PIL in Supreme Court, their MPs met President and Rahul made allegations to defame the BJP chief in a press conference (regarding Loya's death)," Rupani told reporters in Gandhinagar.

3) Supreme Court website reportedly hacked, down minutes after Loya verdict: "Site under maintenance," read the message on the landing page of supremecourtofindia.nic.in.

"This site can't be reached," said another message on the page of the website maintained by the government-run National Informatics Centre (NIC) that creates e-governance applications. Earlier, the site flashed an error message "Err_Socket_Not_Connected" which means that the site was facing a Domain Name System error.

However, images of the website circulated on social media, apparently captured soon after the top court rejected pleas for an independent probe into the death of Judge B.H. Loya, showed that it may have been attacked by a Brazilian hack team.

4) SC ruling in Justice Loya case 'exposed' Congress, says Yogi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lauded the decision of the Supreme Court and also accused the Congress party of attempting to create a negative environment against the ruling government. "The verdict in Judge Loya case has exposed the Congress Party once again. Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the people of the country," Adityanath said.

5) Sad letter day in India's history, says Congress on SC verdict: The Congress on Thursday raised questions over the Supreme Court verdict rejecting a batch of pleas seeking a probe into the alleged mysterious death of judge B H Loya.

Attacking the BJP for accusing Congress president Rahul Gandhi's as being the invisible hand behind the petitions seeking the probe, party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala termed the allegations as a malicious attempt which showed the ruling party's jitteriness.

It is a sad letter day in India's history. The suspicious circumstances in which Loya died, was a matter of deep concern for those who have faith in the judiciary. The copy of the entire judgment is not yet available. But there are still questions before those who believe in the judiciary, Surjewala said.

6) Rahul behind petitions, says BJP: The ruling BJP came down heavily on the Opposition after the Supreme Court dismissed the Loya death case petition. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the petitions were filed with a political agenda.

"For some time, a few people were trying to politicise the judiciary. The court has slammed the petitioners who were demanding an SIT probe into the death of judge Loya," he said.

Accusing the Congress of being the "invisible political power or a political platform" behind the petition, Patra said it was an attempt to settle political rivalry.

"Who held a press conference on January 12, 2018? It was Rahul Gandhi. It will be true to say the invisible hand, the invisible body that the Supreme Court is talking about... is none other than Rahul Gandhi and the Congress," he said.

7) Cannot doubt the statement of lower court judge, says SC: Nishant Karketakar, Maharashtra Government Counsel in judge Loya’s death case while talking to reporters after the verdict said that the apex court came to a conclusion after examining all the documents related to the case that Judge Loya died a natural death.

"The court said that there was no chance to doubt the statement of the lower judges who were accompanying Judge Loya. The court has assumed that somewhere the image of the judiciary is being maligned," Karketakar said.

8) 'Attempt made to scandalise judiciary': The Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and judges A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, which dismissed the pleas, said that attempts were made to scandalise the judiciary by levelling serious allegations against judicial officers and judges of the Bombay High Court. 

9) Documents show judge Loya died of natural causes, says SC: The Bench further said that there was no reason to doubt the statements of the four judges on the circumstances leading up to the death of judge Loya, adding that the documents placed on record and their scrutiny established that the special CBI judge's death was due to natural causes.

10) Frivolous litigation filed to settle political scores, says SC: The Supreme Court said that with these petitions it became clear that a real attempt and a frontal attack was being made on the independence of the judiciary. The apex court also said that a frivolous and motivated litigation had been filed to settle a political score. It also said that political battles should be fought in the "halls of democracy" and not inside court, reported Bar & Bench.

Loya's death came into the spotlight after media reports in November: Loya had allegedly died of cardiac arrest on December 1, 2014, in Nagpur, where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The issue of Loya's death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it and its link to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case. But Loya's son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes.

Did sequence of events suggest foul play? Those seeking an independent probe into the matter had referred to the sequence of events related to judge Loya's death to highlight that a fair investigation was needed to rule out any foul play in his demise.

The judgment pronounced by Justice Chandrachud took exception to the way the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed and insinuations were made against the committee of administrators of the Bombay High Court and the judges of the Supreme Court in the course of the hearing.

But the court said it was not initiating civil contempt against the petitioner for scandalising the judiciary. It pulled up the petitioners for making unfounded allegations against the judicial officers which were extraneous to the issue.

"The PIL was misused with a political agenda that one man was behind everything. It is a matter of serious concern when court is faced with frivolous PILs and several genuine cases involving personal liberty of under-privileged are pending.

"It is a travesty of justice in the guise of demanding independence of judiciary as if there is a great danger to this institution," the court said.

"It gives a sense of anguish that the proceedings were converted to scandalise the judiciary bordering on contempt," the court said.

With agency inputs