By Amritananda Chakravorty
The story around Judge B.H. Loya’s death on 1st December, 2014, which was highly suspicious, refuses to die. After the Supreme Court refused order an independent investigation into the mysterious death of Judge Loya in April, 2018, the hope for the truth coming out was low. Now a new petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court by Advocate Satish Uke shockingly claiming that Judge Loya’s death was caused by radioactive isotope poisoning. He has also claimed that there are serious threats to his life, as two attempts had already been made in 2016 and on 31st July, 2018.
He further has claimed that he was approached by Judge Loya in October, 2014, through two acquaintances of Judge Loya, who informed him that Judge Loya was ‘being put under pressure by influential persons in Maharashtra regarding the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case’. While Advocate Uke did not get to meet Judge Loya in person, he had a video chat with the Judge, arranged by one of the acquaintances in October, 2014 itself. As per Uke, Judge Loya told him that he was being pressurised by three persons to give a favourable judgment to Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin’s case, including the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis. Judge Loya even allegedly said that he had been given a draft copy of the ‘judgment’ in the Sohrabuddin Case for the ‘discharge’ of Amit Shah, a copy of which was then sent to Advocate Uke.
After Judge Loya’s highly mysterious death on December 1, 2014, Avocate Uke got many reports about how the post mortum report was manipulated, in order to cover up an unnatural death. In November, 2015, one of the two acquaintances who had met Judge Loya, Advocate Khandalkar died in suspicious circumstances in the District Court, Nagpur, while the other acquaintance, Judge Thombre died in May, 2016. Advocate Uke also survived a major attempt on his life in June, 2016.
The petition further states that Amit Shah had met the Chairperson of Atomic Energy Commission, Ratan Kumar Sinha, in March, 2015, which indicated that Judge Loya died of poisoning of radioactive isotope. In February, 2018, according to the petition, an associate of Uke received a call from Sanjay Fadnavis, Devendra Fadnavis’ brother to drop the Judge Loya case and keep all the documents hidden. The Advocate has further claimed that his life is in danger from Amit Shah and requested the court to keep all documents in safe custody. The documents relating to Judge Loya’s death were allegedly destroyed but he managed to recover them through other departments. On earlier occasions, he was offered huge funds to keep the documents under wraps.
Though the fate of this petition is unknown, it is quite clear that the dust around Judge Loya’s death is yet to be settled. There are many questions unanswered, but the lack of interest in the Courts to conduct a fair investigation to find out the truth is quite disconcerting. Lot has been said about the Supreme Court decision refusing an independent investigation into Judge Loya’s death.
At the same time, the trial of Sohrabuddin’s fake encounter is going on currently, wherein the last two prosecution witnesses, Amitabh Thakur and Sandeep Tamgadge, have made some explosive statements against Amit Shah. Amitabh Thakur was the CBI’s Chief Investigating Officer in Sohrabuddin’s fake encounter case, and told the CBI Special Court that five people were “political and monetary beneficiaries” of the killing, i.e., Amit Shah, D.G. Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Dinesh M.N. and Abhay Chudasama. Thereafter, Sandeep Tamgadge named Amit Shah, Vanzara, Pandian and Dinesh M.N. as the “principal conspirators” in the alleged murder of Tulsiram.
One has to see the effect of these depositions on the actual trial, but the sheer indications of these testimonies bring to light the role of a key political person in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Both Judge Loya’s death and Sohrabuddin trial show how the criminal justice system has been manipulated to protect the powerful. One hopes that the Bombay High Court takes a holistic view of the whole affair and at least gives protection to Advocate Uke. (IPA Service)
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