Picture Courtesy : YouTube
“It’s a sad day in the history of India,” Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference. “The issue of criminality or the lack thereof can only be decided through investigation. No one, without an investigation, can decide whether the death is natural or unnatural,” he said.
Randeep Surjewala made this comments soon after the Supreme Court rejects pleas for a fresh probe in the Judghe Loya death case.
“Loya’s sister gave an interview, alleging that he was offered a bribe of Rs 100 crore along with a flat in Mumbai if he were to deliver a verdict in favour of the accused. The ECG and histopathology report showed no evidence of a heart attack whatsoever. AIIMS doctor RK Sharma clearly stated that there was no sign of a heart attack and there was evidence that Loya was hit on head by a blunt weapon,” Surjewala said.
Asking how there was no record of the judge travelling by train from Mumbai to Nagpur, the Congress chief spokesperson claimed that Loya had no security protection during his visit to Nagpur.
Surjewala said that there was no record of Loya staying in the hotel and there was no reason for three judges to sleep in two beds during their stay when adjoining rooms were available in the hotel.
Loya, who allegedly died of cardiac arrest on 1 December, 2014, had reportedly shared a hotel room with two judges when he was attending the wedding of a colleague’s daughter in Nagpur.
He also said that two of Loya’s colleagues, who were informed about the pressure he was facing in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh ‘fake encounter’ case, also died under suspicious circumstances.
Surjewala asked why an SIT probe was not being allowed when there is “adequate suspicion being raised by forensic evidence, ECG, histopathology, opinion of experts, witness, and documents”.
“In law, according to us, statements made by anyone before police officers have no value as evidence. The (four Bombay High Court) judges did not make a statement in front of a magistrate,” he said, adding that the case needs to be investigated for its “truthfulness or falsehood”.
“That’s why, perhaps, Loya’s death was raised by the four senior-most judges in the public domain at a press conference. This proves that they were concerned about protection of rights and the judiciary,” he said.
Surjewala said that BJP’s statement must be condemned with “strongest possible words” and asserted that the “Congress wasn’t a petitioner” in the Supreme Court. This was in reposnse to the charge that invisible hand behind the petitioners was the hand of Rahul Gandhi as alleged by the BJP
Surjewala said that BJP’s stand reflected their “frustration”. “INC is committed to the people’s demand for a fair investigation in the suspicious circumstances surrounding Loya’s death,” he said.
Surjewala also took a dig at Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who addressed the press following the verdict in a tweet
Intriguing indeed!
How does the Law Min, Ravi Shankar Prasad have a copy of Supreme Court judgement in #JudgeLoya case, when neither the public nor the press or advocates have got a copy yet?
And the Supreme Court web site is hacked.So much for transparency & fairness!
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) April 19, 2018
