Cannot doubt statement of lower court judge accompanying Justice Loya: SC

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed the petitions seeking Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge B.H. Loya's death case, saying that statement of the lower judges, accompanying the latter cannot be doubted.

Nishant Karketakar, Maharashtra Government Counsel in Judge Loya death case while talking to the reporters after the verdict said that after examining all the documents related to the case, the apex court came to a conclusion that Judge Loya died a natural death.

"The court said that there is no chance to doubt the statement of the lower judges, who were accompanying Judge Loya. The court has assumed that somewhere the image of the judiciary is being maligned," Karketakar said.

Meanwhile, the petitioner in the case, Tehseen Poonawalla expressed disappointment over the verdict of the court.

"We don't have any issue with the verdict of the apex court. What is important to know that whether there was any lacuna or not. That matter has not been," Poonawalla said.

Earlier in the day, a bench of apex court headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra dismissed the petition in the said case.

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.