Sohrabuddin Case: Activists Demand Security for Justice Loya’s Family and Investigative Journalist

In wake of the questions and allegations raised by the family of late Justice Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, the special CBI court judge who died while presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, activists have demanded an inquiry into the judge’s death.

On November 22, the Caravan magazine’s political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, Professor Apoorvanand from Delhi University, advocate Manisha Sethi, and social activists Syeda Hameed and Shabnam Hashmi held a press conference in Delhi to demand a high-level judicial inquiry into Loya’s death.

They also demanded security for Loya’s family members, who have spoken out, as well as for journalist Niranjan Takle, who did the investigative story.

Loya’s death, which took place sometime between the night of 30 November 2014 and the wee hours of 1 December 2014, was reported in the media as caused by a “heart attack”.

However, year-long investigations by journalist Niranjan Takle have revealed that there are glaring inconsistencies in the official accounts of Loya’s death. Takle pieced together the story by talking to Loya’s family and other sources, between November 2016 and November 2017.

Recounting the details of the story, Bal rubbished any questions being raised about the timing of the story, given the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.

He said Takle had conducted the investigation on his own, and after the Caravan was approached to publish the story, the magazine had taken the time it needed to verify each step of the investigation. “We released it when we were ready,” Bal said.

Professor Apoorvanand said the revelations had cast grave doubts over the integrity and the functioning of the country’s judicial institutions, adding that the highest level of judicial probe was a must.

Advocate Manisha Sethi said statements made earlier by some senior police officers connected with the case were a clear indictment of the pressure from above. She said the lives and safety of the family and Takle were in peril, and therefore they must immediately be provided with security.

Social activist Syeda Hameed reiterated the importance of a fair and transparent inquiry in order to restore the confidence of the ordinary citizens in the judiciary.

Activist Shabnam Hashmi talked about the general “atmosphere of fear” created by the Right-wing and “fascist” forces of the RSS-BJP. She said it was urgent to ensure that democratic voices were not scared and stifled.

On November 20 and 21, the Caravan magazine published two stories casting suspicion over the circumstances surrounding Loya’s death.

The first had Loya’s family sharing the “suspicious” circumstances and inconsistencies surrounding his death. These included questions about the time of the death, the post-mortem procedure as it is not known who authorised it, the condition of the body when it was received by the family, the role played by an RSS worker named Ishwar Baheti, and the deletion of data from Loya’s phone before it was returned to the family.

The second story had Loya’s sister Anuradha Biyani alleging that Mohit Shah, who was Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court between June 2010 and September 2015, offered her brother a bribe of Rs 100 crore.

The case had named BJP national president Amit Shah as a “prime accused”, besides top Gujarat police officers. However, after Justice Loya’s death, Shah was given a clean chit by the CBI on 30 December 2014.