Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday demanded an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for supporting the public interest litigation petition seeking an investigation into the death of B.H. Loya, judge of a special CBI court, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin encounter case. Mr. Prasad termed the actions of Mr. Gandhi and the Congress “politically vested”, and said he owed the country an apology for dragging political matters to the courts.
“This case was not in the public interest, but in the interest of the Congress and to cause harm to the BJP in general and our national president, Amit Shah, in particular,” he said. “The BJP condemns the reckless comments made against our national president [Mr. Shah] during the court proceedings. We can see a pattern in all this to target the BJP and our president. Three years after the incident, a magazine publishes this article, new angles are sought to be unearthed. To settle political scores, even judicial authorities were sought to be scandalised,” he said.
‘False allegations’
“Electoral battles are to be fought in the court of the people, the law courts should not be used for political battles based on malicious facts and false allegations. The Supreme Court order has answered every query with regard to the case. Those who moved the case are closely involved with the Congress, and the Congress now stands exposed,” he said.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said “an attempt to malign senior leaders of the BJP has failed. It is clear that the judiciary cannot be made a field for political battles.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed pleas seeking an independent investigation into the death of Loya, ruling that the judge died of natural causes and the petitions were a serious attempt to scandalise and obstruct the course of justice.
Dismissing the pleas, a three-judge Bench held that all litigation concerning circumstances of the death of judge Loya concluded with this judgment.
