Justice Loya case: Petitions had personal interest, says Former AG

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 19 (ANI): Reacting on the Supreme Court's dismissal of petitions seeking SIT probe into Special CBI Judge BH Loya's death, Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the pleas had personal interest.

"Petition had personal interest, not public interest," Rohatgi said.

He also said that the main aim of the petitioners was only to attack some senior functionaries in the government.

He said, "These petitioners did not uphold the rule of law. Main aim was to attack some senior functionaries of the current government. There was no question of foul play."

Earlier in the day, a bench of apex court headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra dismissed petitions seeking SIT probe into Justice Loya's death case.

"There is no merit in the petitions and there is no reason to doubt the statements of sitting Judges, attempt of the petitioners was to malign the judiciary," said SC while dismissing the petitions.

The apex court had earlier asked the Maharashtra Government to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge, who had died in alleged suspicious circumstances in 2014, citing that the "matter was very serious."

As per the official records, Justice Loya died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur in 2014, a day after he attended the wedding and reception of his colleague's daughter.

Maharashtra-based journalist B.S. Lone and activist Tehseen Poonavala had filed independent pleas seeking a fair probe into the death of Justice Loya alleging he died under mysterious circumstances.

Justice Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, involving various police officers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah at the time of his death. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI