Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey/Files
The BJP, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states welcomed the Supreme Court verdict dismissing pleas to probe the death of Judge B H Loya. The party alleged that the case was an attempt to “damage the interests of the BJP in general and its national president Amit Shah in particular”. Law Minister Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media at the party headquarters, “It was not a case activated by public interest, (but was) basically driven to promote Congress interest to damage the interests of the BJP in general and its national president Amit Shah in particular”.
“This was a case brought to put a blot on our national president. Can anything be more irresponsible than saying that the SC is under the influence of our party president?” Prasad asked.
Prasad trained the guns at Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, who, he said, led the tirade against BJP and Shah over the Loya death issue. “The biggest tragedy of this proceeding is that to settle political score even the judicial authorities and judges have been sought to be scandalised and that they will go to the extent of alleging… in fact, the whole conduct amounted to serious compromise on the independence of judiciary,” Prasad said.
Prasad also highlighted the apex court’s observation on an argument by lawyer Dushyant Dave. Dave, one of the petitioners seeking an independent probe, had said that since two judges of High Court — Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice S B Shukre — had given an interview to The Indian Express in which they said Justice Loya’s death was due to natural causes, their statements could not be regarded as independent.
Prasad pointed out that the court rejected Dave’s argument because the statements were published on November 27, 2017 whereas the statements from the judges were received on November 23 and 24. “There were wrong statements to defame the judicial officers. The article was published four days after they gave their statements to the court,” he said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh pointed out that the Supreme Court had cautioned against the “misuse of courts in political tug-of-war”. In a series of tweets, he said, “The SC verdict gives a clear message that the judiciary cannot be misled by allegations based on political vendetta…It is extremely unfortunate that there have been several attempts of targeting the BJP and assassinating the character of its top leaders on the basis of ‘fake facts’. These attempts have failed miserably once again.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “There was an attempt to create suspicion over the accidental death of Justice Loya after three years. In a way, behind this, there was an attempt to attack BJP President Amit Shah. Today, the Congress, Communists and media houses have been exposed…”
Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das said the Supreme Court verdict was a “slap on the face of Congress”. “SatyamevJayate! The welcome judgement by the honourable Supreme Court in #JudgeLoya case is a tight slap to those people who were exploiting the natural death of the Judge and playing petty politics for their narrow vested interests,” Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh said.
Earlier in the day, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that the “invisible hand” behind the petitions seeking probe belonged to Rahul Gandhi and alleged that the Congress president tried to use the judiciary for “character assassination” of Amit Shah.
