What is scandalous about Judge Loya's probe?
- Vinod Chand
If you want to understand what is scandalous about Judge Loya's probe, read on;
The first scandalous thing is that the lawyers who were defending Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Encounter Case became lawyers for Maharashtra Government to fight for stopping an inquiry into the death.
The second scandalous thing was that a person close to a top BJP leader moved a PIL in the Supreme Court and during the hearing instead of asking for a probe into the death turned into a litigant that was asking for stopping a probe into the death as by then it had dawned on him that the PIL that he had filed was based on hearsay and stories in a magazine.
The third scandalous thing was that the PIL by Bombay Lawyers Association was filed in Bombay High Court but was kept pending by the registry for several days and surreptitiously two PIL's were filed in the Supreme Court and immediately accepted leaving the Bombay Lawyers Association no option but to move their PIL to the Supreme Court.
The fourth scandalous thing has already been detailed by the four Supreme Court Judges in their unprecedented in history, press conference where they questioned the method of operation of the Supreme Court and the allotment of cases to benches that could give favorable orders.
The fifth scandalous thing was that Maharashtra Government commissioned a 'discrete inquiry' by a Police Officer, which was completed in a matter of days and which became the main document relied on by the Supreme Court even though neither the inquiry report nor the statements given by any of those who had been supposedly interrogated by the said senior police officer came on affidavit. They just made plain statements as ordinary citizens and not under oath. This has set very dangerous precedents for the justice delivery system. The scandalous thing is that would all courts now accept plain statements not made under oath as acceptable on record in any / all cases?
The sixth scandalous thing was that no person who had been subjected to an inquiry by the Police Officer was called for questioning by the court or allowed to be cross questioned even when repeated requests were made by the petitioners, Bombay Lawyers Association through their lawyer Dushyant Dave.
The seventh scandalous thing was that the petitioners were denied copies of post mortem and ECG reports during the hearing of the case.
The biggest scandal is that the mere words of some persons who did not even come to the Supreme Court on oath were accepted as gospel truth due to the position that they held as judges in Bombay High Court and subordinate courts.
The rejection of Judge Loya's death probe request will go down as probably the darkest hour in the history of free and modern India. We have hit the nadir, the lowest point. Our whole justice system now seems to resemble a scandal. It looks like that all established judicial procedures have been set aside to save the skin of one person and in doing that justice has been denied.
If people don't wake up to this reality, there is hardly any hope left for the country.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24, 25: BCCI
New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.
This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.
The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.
Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.
The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.
Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.
Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.
As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.
The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.
Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.
