Mumbai: Maharashtra government is open to the reinvestigation of the Justice BH Loya death case based on the evidence and inputs from various sources. Home Minister Anil Deshmukh told FPJ, ''I am meeting few people with some evidence and later the decision will be taken to reopen the case. If there is some substance, then only re-investigation will be done.''
Deshmukh declined to divulge further details on people he would meet with some evidence in Justice Loya death case. At the time of his death on December 1, 2014, Judge Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, in which now BJP President and Union Home Minister Amit Shah was accused.
Shah, whose role as Minister of State for Home in the Gujarat government, had come under scanner, was discharged in the case. Former hief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that Loya died of heart attack. "Three senior judges had taken him to the hospital. Two of them had taken his dead body to his native place in Latur. His family has cleared that they have no doubt on his death but some people who have the vested interest in this case are crying foul," Fadnavis noted.
Deshmukh's statement is crucial when the NCP chief Sharad Pawar last month NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said that Justice BH Loya's death should be re-investigated if there is a demand and need for it. Pawar had noted that if there is something in it, then maybe a re-investigation should be done. If not, then it is not right to make baseless allegations on anyone either.
In his response, the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray dropped hint that he may take a call in this regard. In January 2018, after a presser by four rebel judges, Uddhav Thackeray had asked for a probe and said: “If someone feels that the death is suspicious and approaches the court for inquiry, there is a need for impartial inquiry so that truth can be brought out.
There is a need for bringing out truth in Justice Loya's death and if nothing is unfair in this matter, then why one should worry about instituting inquiry?”
Meanwhile, BJP has slammed Deshmukh for his statement. Leader of opposition in the state council Praveen Darekar said the file pertaining to the Justice Loya case is closed. He alleged that the government is vindictive and wants to defame BJP.
