Justice Loya's death: Family has no suspicions, asks for issue not to be politicized

NEW DELHI: CBI judge B H Loya's family on Sunday said that they did not want to be victims of politicization and urged all parties to refrain from taking advantage of the situation.

"Our family is pained with the chain of events in past few days. Please don't harass us," justice Loya's son Anuj said at a specially convened press conference.

"We have no suspicion over father's death; I had suspicions earlier but now it is over," Anuj clarified when asked about reports that members of Loya's family had doubts about the circumstances surrounding his death.

Loya had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. At the time, he was hearing a case related to the alleged fake encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsi Prajapati in 2005. A CBI court subsequently acquitted BJP chief Amit Shah who was among the accused, along with a few others.

Ameer Naik, the lawyer representing the Loyas, reiterated that the family does not suspect foul play or conspiracy and the purpose of the presser was to dispel any shadow of doubt in people's mind regarding judge Loya's death.

"There is no controversy. No need of politicising the issue. This is a tragic event. We do not want to be victims of politicisation of the issue. Let it remain the way it is, non-controversial," Naik said.

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had admitted a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a probe into the death of B H Loya. The bench had also directed the Maharashtra government to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge, asserting that the "matter was very serious".

The petition was filed by Maharashtra based journalist B R Lone, who submitted that a fair probe was needed into the death of Loya .

(With inputs from Agencies)