Mumbai: Activists travel by local trains to protest for delay in Justice Loya’s case

Mumbai: Activists protesting for the delay in justice for Judge B H Loya in Mumbai used a rather innovative way of showing dissent on Tuesday. The activists travelled by local trains across the Western line and got down at a few important stations for a few minutes. Whenever the police or Railway Police Force (RPF) tried to shoo them away, they would hop onto another train and stage a similar protest at another station.  Justice Loya was presiding over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and had died suspiciously three years ago.

The activists started their protests early in the morning donning ‘Who Killed Judge Loya?’ printed T-shirts (in Hindi and English, front and back) and alighted at key stations to grab maximum public attention. “We started at around 9 am and stood at platforms or foot-over-bridges. As people went by, they noticed our T-shirts and got the whole point. The same was replicated at every important railway station,” said Vinod Chand, an activist who spearheaded the initiative.

Also Read: Justice Loya death case: Why didn’t four judges accompanying Loya report death to police?

Chand added that the RPF staff tried to stop them from engaging in ‘such activities’. “The aim was to let people know there was foul play in the death of the judge. And most of the people who came to acknowledge us seconded the opinion,” Chand said.

Another activist said the case has been a talk-of-the-town and even a sugarcane juice seller knew about it. “When we stopped by to sip on sugarcane juice, the seller noticed our shirts. He also said ‘daal mein kuch kaala hai sahab’. Such has been the awareness about the case in public,” said Ashok Pai, activist.