My father died a natural death: Justice Loya's son

Anuj Loya, son of special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Justice B.H. Loya, who had been hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case and died in alleged suspicious circumstances in 2014, said on Sunday that his father died a natural death.

"We are convinced that my father had a natural death. We do not have any suspicion about it and everything is clear," Anuj told ANI here.

Referring to doubts raised by the family earlier regarding Loya's death, he said they had questioned the circumstances due to the rumours being spread about Rs. 100-crore bribe.

"It was a sudden death and there were rumors being spread regarding Rs. 100-crore bribe, which is why we had raised questions," he said after addressing a conference on the same matter, just moments earlier.

"We are clear now. I did not want to bring the matter in the spotlight. All my family members were in doubt especially my aunt but I am under no one's pressure. I am representing all my family members," he asserted.

Anuj's cousin brother Pratik Bhandari, who was present in the media briefing, said the family had decided to address the media as they were being harassed by various people calling them and seeking details regarding the judge's death.

"Rumors get spread whenever a man holding a high position dies. The entire family is very disturbed. My grandfather is 85-years-old and you can imagine if same question is raised to him every day about the death of his son, how would he feel? Therefore, we had decided to hold a presser and dispel doubts regarding the matter," Bhandari added.

A close family friend, K.B. Karthike, who also accompanied Anuj to the news conference along with family lawyer Ameer Naik, also echoed similar sentiments and said the family had expressed certain doubts initially, but subsequently, when they saw the postmortem reports and met the judges who used to be with Loya every day, they were convinced that it was not sabotage but a natural death due to heart attack.

Earlier in the press conference, Anuj and lawyer Naik urged everyone not to politicise the matter and harass them.

The media briefing took place two days after four Supreme Court judges held a press conference in Delhi to protest against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra for allegedly assigning high-profile cases randomly.

Post that conference, Justice Loya's death is once again in the news. A magazine article on the same matter created a controversy in December last year.