New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, PTI has reported. Underlining it to be a “serious” issue, the top court also said, “This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte”.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar asked the Maharasthra government to file reply by January 15 when the next hearing will be held.
Judge Loya died in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter. The issue came in the spotlight in November last year after a report by Caravan magazine linking the circumstances surrounding his death to the trial in the Sohrabuddin case.
Maharashtra-based journalist BR Lone had filed an independent plea seeking a fair probe into the alleged mysterious death of Loya.
Lone’s petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud on January 11 and it sought a probe saying there were several contradictions emerging in the matter.
The second litigation was filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, who in his plea contended that the circumstances revolving around the death of the judge were “questionable, mysterious and contradicting”.
