Thread by @thecaravanindia

On the intervening night of 30 November and 1 December 2014, the judge BH Loya died under mysterious circumstances. At the time, he was presiding over the Sohrabuddin encounter case, in which Amit Shah was the prime accused. The Caravan's coverage of the death of #JudgeLoya:

Over numerous conversations with Loya’s family members, @niranjan_takle pieced together a chilling description of what #JudgeLoya went through while presiding over the Sohrabuddin trial, and of what happened following his death.

From November 2017: bit.ly/340RXsz

#JudgeLoya’s sister Anuradha Biyani said that Loya confided in her that Mohit Shah—then the chief justice of the Bombay HC—offered him a bribe of Rs 100 crore for a favourable judgment in the Sohrabuddin case.

From November 2017, @niranjan_takle in: bit.ly/2pypmvQ

Video | Testimonies from #JudgeLoya’s family raised disturbing questions about his death. The family also described the pressures and inducements Loya faced while presiding over the Sohrabuddin trial.

From November 2017: bit.ly/2QSa6oO

Referring to the death of #JudgeLoya, the politician Shatrughan Sinha said, “Judges are also getting killed. You will not report in newspapers. Even if you report, it may not appear. Money power is overpowering people’s power.”

From November 2017: bit.ly/37JSLo4

In November 2017, Arun Shourie criticised the country’s mainstream media for its “complete resolute silence” on the circumstances surrounding the death of #JudgeLoya. “Every media house should have been running to develop that story,” he said.

bit.ly/2XP7aL9

In November 2017, BH Marlapalle, a retired judge of the Bombay HC, wrote to Manjula Chellur, then the chief justice of the court, urging an “investigation by an SIT” into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the #JudgeLoya.
bit.ly/2XTJq8p

The politician Shatrughan Sinha said that the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the #JudgeLoya “should be raised in Parliament, outside Parliament.”

From November 2017, @aathira_vk in: bit.ly/2q2bWsc

Video | In December 2017, the former judges of the higher judiciary PB Sawant and BG Kolse-Patil demanded an independent inquiry into the death of #JudgeLoya. “It should have minimal involvement of the government machinery,” Kolse-Patil said.
bit.ly/34scYg7

Worried that Anuj, #JudgeLoya's son, was under pressure, his friend reached out to The Caravan and said that Anuj had told him “that if any harm came to his family,” he was to tell the “media or someone who could do something about it” about the letter.
bit.ly/2CWAQw2

“I want to resign. I will come to the village and take up farming, but I will not give a wrong judgment.”
#JudgeLoya told his law college batchmate a month before his death.

From December 2017: bit.ly/343caOs

The occupancy register at Ravi Bhavan shows three blank entries and two instances of inconsistent dating immediately preceding the entries that relate directly to #JudgeLoya’s stay there on his final night.

From Dec 2017, @anoshmalekar and Atul Dev in: bit.ly/2pvTZSD

The lawyer Milind Pakhale filed a police complaint stating that an entry he made in the occupancy register at Ravi Bhavan, a govt-run VIP guest house in Nagpur where Loya was staying at the time of his death, had been manipulated.

From 2017, Atul Dev in: bit.ly/37i0byA

On 12 January 2018, four of the senior-most SC judges met the CJI Dipak Misra before holding an unprecedented press conference. Ranjan Gogoi later confirmed that the meeting concerned the petitions regarding the death of #JudgeLoya.

Atul Dev in: bit.ly/2CZUDKY

In an open letter to the former CJI Dipak Misra, a former Supreme Court judge and three former high court judges urged him to take immediate steps to “restore public confidence in the judiciary and in the Supreme Court.”

From January 2018: bit.ly/2QTVkh9

“If you ask me as a citizen, not as a relative. My view as a citizen is the inquiry initiated in the Supreme Court has to proceed,” #JudgeLoya's uncle said, referring to the petition for a probe into the judge’s death.

From Jan 2018, @anoshmalekar in: bit.ly/2Qw5ZOZ

The petitioners in the SC cases seeking an investigation into #JudgeLoya's death, and the manner in which the petitions were listed and heard since they were clubbed together on 12 January 2018, merit close scrutiny.

From Jan 2018, Atul Dev in: bit.ly/2CYqPi5

Documents submitted to the Supreme Court by the state of Maharashtra as part of hearings regarding the death of #JudgeLoya contradict each other on multiple counts.

From Jan 2018, Atul Dev reports: bit.ly/2pANjCM

One of India’s foremost forensic experts, Dr RK Sharma, dismissed the claim that #JudgeLoya died of a heart attack. According to Sharma, the documents showed signs of possible trauma to the brain, and even possible poisoning.

From Feb 2018, Atul Dev in: bit.ly/2XrF8F5

Sanjay Fadnavis, a cousin of Maharashtra's former chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, made a late-night call to threaten an advocate who had been working to obtain information regarding the mysterious death of the #JudgeLoya.

From March 2018, Atul Dev in: bit.ly/2rSFrgw

This is not the first time that the state of Maharashtra has produced testimonies in court to counter the facts placed before them. “These statements have been taken under pressure,” Dushyant Dave had submitted during the hearings.

From March 2018: bit.ly/2rYiAAj

None of the 17 former and current Ravi Bhawan employees had any inkling that a guest staying at the guest house had, as the judges stated, become grievously unwell, been taken to a hospital early in the morning, and subsequently died.

From March 2018: bit.ly/37cVIxb

There was a concerted effort to conceal any observations that could raise suspicions regarding the cause of #JudgeLoya’s death, and that Vyawahare led the cover-up during the post-mortem examination.

From April 2018, @nikita1712 in: bit.ly/2QO7tnJ

Even a scrutiny limited to the manner in which the judgment deals with the ECG and the post-mortem indicates that a broader inquiry would have resulted in a different conclusion.

From April 2018, @HartoshSinghBal in: bit.ly/33aXFqt

A letter by Maharashtra's department of law and judiciary indicates that #JudgeLoya was to travel to Nagpur “for government work.” This contradicts the State Intelligence Department’s assertion that Loya was in Nagpur to attend a wedding.

From June 2018: bit.ly/2Og3YoA

For a few years now, Uke has been working to gather information and documents pertaining to #JudgeLoya’s death. On 31 July, he was arrested by the Nagpur Police for offences he allegedly committed 17 years ago.

From Aug 2018, @ArshuJohn and Atul Dev in: bit.ly/37Ad7Qi

Two of four judges recommended by the SC collegium for elevation to the Bombay HC, SM Modak and VG Joshi, were involved in different capacities with the circumstances surrounding the death of #JudgeLoya.

From September 2018, @ArshuJohn and @nikita1712 in: bit.ly/34c85aK

Documents revealed that the bookings register of the government guest house in Nagpur where #JudgeLoya is said to have been staying at the time of his death contained no entries for the dates surrounding his stay.

From October 2018: bit.ly/2XJtq8V

A police statement by a Ravi Bhawan employee casts doubt on the veracity of two judges’ statements, and suggests that the Maharashtra govt deliberately suppressed this information from the SC. #JudgeLoya

From Oct 2018, @ArshuJohn and @aathira_vk in: bit.ly/37ueIap