New Delhi, April 19: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions seeking Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into Special CBI Judge Brijmohan Harikrishnan Loya's death. A bench of apex court headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra passed the order. The Apex Court slammed petitioners and said that there will be no probe in this case as it was an attempt to malign judiciary.

The Court while dismissing petitions seeking SIT probe into Loya's death said that there is no merit in the petitions and there is no reason to doubt the statements of sitting Judges, the attempt of the petitioners was to malign the judiciary.

Loya had died of a sudden cardiac arrest in 2014, was presiding over a bench which was hearing the politically crucial Sohrabuddin encounter case. Earlier, the apex court had asked the Maharashtra Government to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge, who had died in alleged suspicious circumstances in 2014, citing that the "matter was very serious." The state government, however, refuted the questions raised by the petitioners, charging them with being "politically motivated".

Maharashtra-based journalist B.S. Lone and activist Tehseen Poonavala had filed independent pleas seeking a fair probe into the death of Justice Loya alleging he died under mysterious circumstances. The petitioners, however, claimed the death was reported under mysterious circumstances.

As per reports, 47-year-old Loya had passed away in the wee hours of December 1, 2014 in Nagpur, as per the official records maintained by the Maharashtra government.  Justice Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, involving various police officers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah at the time of his death.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2018 11:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).