India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed all petitions seeking an SIT probe into the death of a CBI court judge B H Loya in Nagpur on December 1, 2014. The apex court emphatically ruled that there was no 'reasonable suspicion' in the death of the judge, and that Judge Loya died of natural causes.
The Supreme Court also slammed the petitioners for trying to "scandalize the process of the court", which prima facie constitutes criminal contempt, but the court chose not to initiate proceedings. The court said, "PIL jurisdiction is being brazenly used by those who have an agenda to settle scores".
The landmark verdict clearly notes that (1) there were attempts to settle political scores by using the case of a district judge's death, and (2) attempts were made to scandalize the Chief Justice of India and other judges hearing the matter. One thing to note is that the individuals and organisations which filed the petitions were connected with each other, and their common target was BJP president Amit Shah.
I want to make some points unequivocally here. When advocate Prashant Bhushan raised fingers at the judges on the issue of probing Judge Loya's death, and when advocate Dushyant Dave named Amit Shah several times, an impression was sought to be created as if everything was being done to shield the BJP president.
Rahul Gandhi probably thought he had hit a jackpot, and he got a chance to level accusations against Amit Shah. Rahul Gandhi has this habit of making accusations over and over again, he named Amit Shah and Judge Loya's death several times, and then persuaded other opposition leaders to join him to meet the President.
The Supreme Court verdict makes it amply clear that Rahul Gandhi was trying to "settle political scores" with Amit Shah behind the screen. The Congress President is now silent on this issue, and his party has questioned the apex court verdict.
The question now remains: if the Opposition is not ready to accept the Supreme Court verdict, then whose verdict will it accept?
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