Days after the Supreme Court said the controversy over the death of Special CBI Court Judge BH Loya is "serious", The Caravan on Friday, 26 January, published an investigative report that raised a multitude of questions over the documents submitted by the Maharashtra government to the apex court as part of the court hearings on the matter.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench – led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra – is currently hearing two PILs seeking an independent probe into Judge Loya’s death.
Based on the analysis of documents submitted to the SC and a report by the Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID), as well as its own investigations over the course of time, The Caravan's story concludes thus:
The papers raise further questions about the circumstances of the case, and failure to resolve any of the troubling discrepancies already exposed in the matter by The Caravan. They also suggest a concerted bid to manipulate records to create a narrative that Loya died of a natural heart attack.The Caravan report
Judge Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter, in which BJP President Amit Shah was an accused, 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.
The issue of Loya's death has been in the spotlight since November 2017, when The Caravan had published a report raising suspicions over the circumstances leading to his death.
Among the many issues raised by the latest investigative report are: The conflicting claims regarding whether Loya was administered an ECG just before his death or not; the conflicting dates found in the police records; the lapses in record-keeping at the guest house where Loya was apparently staying at the time of his death; and, the connection to the case of two people allegedly associated with the RSS.
Was Judge Loya Administered an ECG or Not?
According to The Caravan report, the documents submitted to the court include a significant statement from Judge Roopesh Rathi – who was purportedly with Loya before his death, along with three other judges. Rathi, in his statement, points out that when Loya was taken to the Dande Hospital in Nagpur after complaining of severe chest pain, the ECG machine there was not working.
...At that time the doctors tried to do his ECG but the nodes of ECG machine were broken. Doctors tried and wasted some time but the machine was not working.Rathi’s statement, as quoted in The Caravan
This statement of Rathi's – the report points out – comes in contradiction to some news reports citing an ECG chart to indicate that an ECG was indeed carried out on Loya at the Dande Hospital.
Raising doubts over the authenticity of the ECG chart, the report says:
If, in fact, no ECG was performed on Loya at Dande Hospital, questions must be asked as to how a chart purportedly produced by such a test, with the words “Dande Hospital” handwritten in its margins, found its way to select media outlets within a week of The Caravan first reporting the Loya’s family suspicions.The Caravan report
The magazine also claims that the documents submitted to the apex court exclude various vital records which might have been doctored or manipulated.
Questions Raised With Regard to Meditrina Hospital
The report raises questions not just with regard to the Dande Hospital, but also the Meditrina Hospital in Nagpur, where Judge Loya was taken subsequently. It states that the medico-legal consultant at Meditrina, Ninad Gawande, has made contradictory statements with regard to the purported ECG chart from the Dande Hospital.
The writer notes the contradiction in Gawande's conduct as follows:
In effect, Gawande, who insisted when I interviewed him that he did not see an ECG chart from Dande Hospital until after Loya’s death, appears to have prepared a medico-legal report recommended on the basis of such a chart on the day of the judge’s death.The Caravan report
Not just this, the report also points out to a "Final Impatient Bill" for the treatment of Loya at the Meditrina Hospital, which makes mentions of a fee for "neurosurgery". Considering that Judge Loya apparently showed signs of a heart attack, the reference to "neurosurgery" in the bill raises questions, the report indicates.
Discrepancies in the Police Records
According to The Caravan report, among the documents submitted to the Supreme Court are two accidental death reports prepared by Sitabuldi police station and Sadar police station in Nagpur respectively. It goes on to indicate that while the former mentions the time and death of Judge Loya as 6:15 am, 30 November 2014, the latter says it occurred at 6:15 am on 1 December 2014.
As per standard procedure, the report from Sadar has to be based on the one from Sitabuldi. There is no indication in the documents as to how and why the dates of death in the two reports disagree.The Caravan report
What About the Two People With Alleged Connections to RSS?
In its latest report, The Caravan says that many questions regarding the role of individuals named Ishwar Baheti and his brother Hansraj Baheti, both allegedly having connections with the RSS, remain unanswered in the documents.
The investigations carried out by the magazine in the whole case indicate that Ishwar Baheti, a resident of Latur, had been in touch with Loya's family regarding his death. Baheti also apparently possessed Loya's mobile phone, returning it to the family several days after his death, "with call records and messages erased".
The SID report makes no mention of Loya’s phone, or how it might have come to be handed over to the judge’s family by Ishwar Baheti even though the police should have taken custody of the phone, listed it among Loya’s belongings in the inquest panchnama and returned it to his family without any tampering.The Caravan report
Statements of Family Members Under Duress?
According to The Caravan report, the documents submitted to the SC include statements from Loya's family members, sister Anuradha Biyani, father Harkishan Loya and son Anuj Loya, which say that the family doesn't have any suspicions regarding the judge's death.
The report argues that these statements might have been taken under duress, as it questions the use and the authority of the state intelligence apparatus in the case.
Why Was Loya's Name Absent in The Occupancy Register of The Guesthouse?
Lastly, the report points out that the documents submitted to the SC fail to explain why Judge Loya's name was absent in the occupancy register of Ravi Bhawan guesthouse, where he was apparently staying at the time of his death.
The report notes this absence of name as unusual, as it claims that the record-keeping at the Ravi Bhawan has otherwise been quite "meticulous".
(With inputs from The Caravan)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)