Nagpur: Renowned lawyer and leader of Swaraj India Prashant Bhushan has demanded an independent probe into death of CBI Judge B H Loya. “There is no evidence that Judge Loya died of heart attack. On the contrary, there were signs of head injury or poisoning. I am filing a petition in this regard in the Supreme Court,” Bhushan stated.
It may be recalled that the CBI Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya died in Nagpur on December 1, 2014. The judge was in the city to attend the wedding and reception of the daughter of a fellow Judge Swapna Joshi, who is now serving in the Bombay High Court. Judge Loya was hearing the 2005 fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which BJP chief Amit Shah was an accused.
Adv Prashant Bhushan was interacting with the media persons at the ‘Meet the Press’ programme held at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan in the city on Saturday. Bhushan candidly dwelt on a number of issues including political, economical and other important issues.
No ‘hope’ from CBI:
Demanding an independent probe to unravel the truth behind Loya’s death, Bhushan asserted that we don’t expect the CBI will allow the truth to come out. “The CBI has prepared a 1000-page chargesheet in the case. A fact has come to the fore that Amit Shah talked to doctor on phone over 100 times. However, the CBI has dropped Shah from any probe in the first hearing itself. The Supreme Court has held hearing in the matter for a month. The report submitted by Maharashtra Government to the apex court is without any affidavit. How could permission was granted to hold hearing on any report without affidavit. It is beyond understanding. I have talked with an AIIMS doctor in the matter. The former Head of Forensic Department Dr Sharma has seen the reports of Judge Loya’s histopathology and ECG. Based on the reports, the cause of Judge Loya’s death could be head injury or even poisoning but not heart attack. The role of Dande Hospital should also be probed vis-a-vis viscera report and post-mortem report. A judicial or SIT probe should be ordered in the matter,” Adv Bhushan demanded.
Corruption in banks:
The renowned lawyer further said that there is need to bring transparency in the working of public sector banks. “Monitoring should be impeccable. Privatisation will not end corruption in banks. The private banks are already neck dip in corruption. The massive fraud in PNB is surprising and shocking as well. A jeweller defrauded the bank to the tune of over Rs 11,000 crore and fled the country. Not only fled the country, he got photographed himself with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a foreign country. Similarly, the LIC is also full of financial irregularities. A cover up exercise is going on,” Bhushan charged.
Rafael deal sans tender:
“The role of Prime Minister Modi in multi-crore Rafael deal is doubtful. I have not seen such a big scam in my lifetime. Instead of 126 fighter jets, the Prime Minister negotiated a deal for 36 fighter jets. No tenders were floated in the deal. The deal has directly profited Anil Ambani’s company to the tune of Rs 22,000 crore,” he claimed.
‘This watchman is destroying other watchmen’:
The flamboyant counsellor took a dig at Prime Minister. “The Prime Minister calls himself ‘watchman’ of the country. On the other hand, other ‘watchmen’ and autonomous institutions are being destroyed one by one. Raghuraman Rajan was ousted from RBI. In his place, Reliance’s Arjit Patel was brought in. Similarly, such persons were appointed in the Central Vigilance Commission who were already in the questions raised by the Commission itself. Some industrialists such as Jatin Mehta, Nirav Modi and Adani accompany the Prime Minister,” Bhushan quipped.
No future for AAP:
“No bright future holds for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). But the party can certainly gain in Delhi due to bad position of Congress and BJP. The AAP is targeting the Central Government over one issue or another to hide its failures. Nobody can deny assault on Chief Secretary as AAP has some criminal minded legislators. The Chief Minister allotted poll tickets to criminals just for winning the election. Hence the honest people have deserted the party,” Bhushan stated.
