Open to re-investigation in Loya case: Maha HM

Maharashtra government is open to re-investigating the death of special Central Bureau of Investigation judge B H Loya in 2014, state home minister Anil Deshmukh said in Mumbai on Thursday.

Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case of Gujarat, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

"Our government is open to re-investigating the Loya death case. Some people are meeting me today to demand that the case be reopened. I will hear them out and if necessary, the case will be re-investigated," Deshmukh told reporters.

Asked if Loya's family members were meeting him, the minister said, "I don't want to disclose that."

Meanwhile, Deshmukh praised the police officers who were part of the operation to nab fugitive gangster Ejaz Lakdawala from Patna on Wednesday night.

He said the gangster's daughter Shifa Shaikh had put 'Manish Advani' as her father's name in her passport.

"She was arrested in the fake passport case and Lakdawala was nabbed after the police came to know of his whereabouts. The police are investigating who is Manish
Advani," he said.

Asked if the police officers who nabbed Lakdawala will be rewarded, he said, "They have gone a good job and a decision on rewarding them will be taken."

Lakdawala, who was earlier an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and gangsters Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan, was operating on his own since 2008-09, Deshmukh said.

"He has 26 extortion cases, four cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and 80 other complaints against him," the minister said.

On Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism that police were under political pressure to withdraw cases against those who protested the Jawaharlal Nehru University violence at Gateway of India in Mumbai, Deshmukh said the police were probing from where Mumbai resident Mehek Prabhu got the placard with the message 'Free Kashmir', and what were her intentions behind displaying it.

"She has given her side of the story and after investigations are completed, a decision on the FIR will be taken," he said.

Deshmukh also said that he has sought a report on the status of probe into the Koregaon Bhima violence on January 1, 2018.