Have not received any evidence on judge B H Loya's death: Maharashtra Home Minister

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday said that he had yet to receive any new evidence about the death of special CBI judge B H Loya who had handled the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case.

Many people had contacted him saying that they had evidence, but none so far had come up with actual proof, he said, speaking at the Press Club here.

To a query whether the probe into Loya's death will be reopened, the minister said, "I received several phone calls from people who claimed they had (new) evidence.

"I told them they can come and meet me. But no one has yet come to meet me with proof (showing that a fresh investigation was needed)," Deshmukh, who belongs to the NCP, said.

He had said earlier that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra was open to investigate Loya's death afresh if any new material surfaced.

Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Shaikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he was visiting the city to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

There were demands from some quarters that the death should be probed as the judge was allegedly under a lot of pressure.

But the Supreme Court rejected multiple pleas for independent probe, holding that Loya died of natural causes.