In yet another sensational expose in the Sohrabuddin encounter killing case published in The Caravan, journalist Niranjan Takle revealed on Monday that Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, CBI Special Court Judge in Mumbai was offered a bribe of ₹100 crore in return for a favourable judgment by Mohit Shah, the then chief justice of Bombay High Court. One of Loya’s sisters, Anuradha Biyani told Niranjan, “My brother was offered a bribe of 100 crore...Mohit Shah, the chief justice, made the offer himself.” Loya’s father Harkishan also told Takle that his son had told him he had offers to deliver a favourable judgment in exchange for money and a house in Mumbai.

The judge, who died mysteriously in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, had confided to his father that he would rather seek a transfer or retirement.

Journalist Niranjan Takle has pieced together damning series of circumstantial evidence that casts a cloud over Nagpur Police, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Amit Shah, the BJP national president, who was facing trial in the CBI court for the fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Brijgopal Harkishan Loya (48) , judge of a CBI Special Court in Mumbai, was healthy, played table tennis for two hours every day and had no history in the family of any cardiac problem. His parents, both in their eighties, are still alive and active. And yet the judge, who had travelled to Nagpur on November 29, 2014 to attend the wedding and reception of a colleague’s daughter, spoke to his wife for 40 minutes after 11 pm on November 30 cheerfully enough, was said to have suffered a massive cardiac arrest at 12.30 am and died.

While the Supreme Court had in its order said that the same judge should hear the case from start to finish, the first judge was transferred on June 25, less than a month after Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister. The judge had reprimanded Amit Shah for not appearing in the court even once. His lawyers had told the court that he suffered from diabetes and could not move. After the NDA won the election in May, 2014, they simply informed the court that Amit Shah was too busy in Delhi.

BH Loya, who took over the case in October, 2014 allowed Shah exemption from personal appearance but only till the ‘charges are framed’. He voiced his displeasure at Shah not appearing on a date when he was in fact present in Mumbai. Loya fixed the next date of hearing on December 15. But on December 1, he was dead. Or, was he murdered?

Forget about the possible answers, the following questions raised by Takle’s report raise enough suspicion to warrant an independent probe: