Judge Loya’s Case: SC Leaves It to Maha Govt to Hand Over Docs

Meanwhile, Nagpur Police said Judge Loya died due to a ‘heart attack’, and that there was “no suspicion”.

Justice Loya’s family have made statements, which contradict those put forth by the official records. 

(Photo courtesy: The Quint)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 16 January, left it to the Maharashtra government to decide which documents, relating to the death of special CBI judge B H Loya, could be handed over to the petitioners who have sought an independent probe into it.

The Nagpur Police, meanwhile, said that they undertook a “thorough investigation” of the judge’s death, adding that it was due to a heart attack.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Nagpur’s Joint Commissioner of Police Shivaji Bodke said:

Nagpur Police undertook a thorough investigation & his death was due to a heart attack, postmortem and forensic reports confirm the same.

Meanwhile, the state government, which filed documents in a sealed cover relating to Loya's death, had during the hearing opposed the petitioners' demand that the entire material should be handed over to them for perusal.

The apex court, in its order, which was uploaded on its website, late in the evening, said:

Let the documents be placed on record within seven days and if it is considered appropriate, copies be furnished to the petitioners. Put up before the appropriate bench.

After the order was uploaded, the standing counsel for Maharashtra said their team of lawyers, including senior advocate Harish Salve, would scan and verify all the documents in consultation with the concerned department and take a call on the issue of handing over the documents.

The case, whose assignment to the bench hearing the PILs was a bone of contention of the unprecedented press conference by the four senior-most judges of the apex court, came up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar.

Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on 1 December 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

When the counsel for the petitioners, on Tuesday, said they should be given copies of the documents the state government has submitted to the court, the bench had observed, "it is a matter where they should know everything".

Earlier in the day, Salve, representing Maharashtra, placed before the bench the documents, including Loya's postmortem report, in a sealed cover. He told the court that these documents contained certain confidential materials which should not be made public.

When the petitioners insisted that they should be given the copies, Salve said the confidentiality of these documents should be maintained.

"If anything is confidential, we will put confidential mark on that," Salve said.

The petitioners' counsel had then assured the top court that they would not make any of the documents public. The bench, without specifying any date, adjourned the case and said it would be listed for hearing after a week.

"We are not fixing any date," the bench said during the brief hearing in the jam-packed courtroom.

The apex court was hearing two separate PILs, filed by Maharashtra-based journalist B R Lone and Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, seeking independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of Loya.

The court had earlier termed the issue of Loya's death a "serious matter", and had asked the Maharashtra government to file certain documents, including the autopsy report.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)