No information about Judge Loya’s death: Ministry of Home Affairs

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday said it has no information about the death of CBI Special Judge BH Loya, who died in Nagpur in December 2014.

In a written reply to a query by KTS Tulsi on the issue, Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in the Rajya Sabha that 'police' and 'public order' are state subjects under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs has no information in this regard," he said.

Tulsi had asked whether any person accompanied the body of CBI special judge BH Loya and if that person gave any history of Judge Loya to the doctor at a Nagpur hospital. He also sought to know the time of death of Judge Loya and cause of death as per hospital records.

Judge Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. He died of a cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The Supreme Court is hearing petitions seeking independent probe into Judge Loya's death.

Gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who the Gujarat Police claimed was also a terrorist, was killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in 2005. His wife Kausar Bi disappeared, and was alleged to have been eliminated by police. Shaikh's associate Tulsi Prajapati was also later killed in an alleged fake encounter.

The CBI took over the probe in February 2010 and filed charge sheet in July the same year against 23 accused, including Amit Shah, who at that time was the minister of state for home in Gujarat.

The trial court, over a period of time, discharged several accused in the case, including Shah and three IPS officers.