TRASH AS INVESTIGATION

t is a classic case of unprocessed trash being passed off as investigation. Fortunately, the Caravan magazine report was blown to smithereens not by anyone else but by the widely-respected Indian Express, a newspaper whose standards the little-known magazine should try and imbibe for its own sake instead of it palming off duds as investigation. First, the facts. It was claimed by Caravan that after a painstaking investigation lasting for one full year, it had come to the conclusion that there was foul play and cover-up in the death of the CBI Special Judge, Brijmohan Harikishan Loya, on December 1, 2014. Judge Loya died of a heart attack in Nagpur where he had gone to attend the wedding and reception of the daughter of a fellow judge Swanpa Joshi, now a Bombay High Court judge. Quoting the deceased’s father and sister, the magazine suggested that the foul play in the death of Loya, who was 48 when he suffered the fatal heart attack, was linked to the fact that he was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which the BJP President Amit Shah was an accused. As soon as the magazine hit the stands with its screaming report, sorry…investigative report, it was seized upon by the usual suspects in the media and politics. They demanded an independent judicial commission to inquire into the death of Judge Loya. Leaders of various political parties aided and abetted by the pro-Congress columnists, and the usual leftist cabal rebuked the media for not taking note of such a great expose. The tooclever-by-half-editor of a Chandigarh-based group of newspapers demanded that the Supreme Court initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against the magazine and taunted the media for not taking note of the earth-shaking report. And a close friend of Rahul Gandhi, who enjoys unchecked access to the columns of a financial daily, after duly banging the media for lacking the courage to follow up on the said report, summed it up thus for her readers: “… the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Mohit Shah, tried to bribe Justice Loya Rs 100 crore to deliver a judgement favourable to Amit Shah, but was turned down. Thereafter, Justice Loya died in what can only be called extremely fishy circumstances, and the judge who replaced him acquitted Amit Shah after three days of hearings…” (Unprintable curse words must not have stopped flowing at the Express for staying honest to its ‘journalism of courage’.) The magazine, purportedly relying on the alleged statements made by the two close relatives of the deceased, claimed that no ECG was done, that someone unknown to the deceased’s family picked up his body, and that nobody bothered to take his body to his relatives… All statements found to be untrue, nay, false, by the Express reporters. The Express report quoted living persons, including judges, on record to demolish the edifice of lies and untruths put together for the ready consumption of the Modi-haters who were only too eager to lap it up. The newspaper published a copy of the ECG. It quoted the two judges who had personally ensured that proper arrangements were made for the body of Judge Loya to be taken to his village home. It also quoted two judges who upon learning that Judge Loya had suffered a heart attack personally rushed him to the hospital. And, later, they took him to a bigger hospital which was better equipped. All other so-called incriminating details in the magazine were addressed in the newspaper report.

Meanwhile, those behind the spurious investigation and those who rushed to take it as gospel truth should feel ashamed, but will not because their minds have been deadened by the Modi hatred. They will try and come up with some other muck against him. After a failed attempt by the leftist website, the Wire, which equated revenue with net profits, this is the second attempt to attack the BJP President on the eve of a key Gujarat Assembly election. Link it to the noises about the Rafele deal, which by all accounts was the best under all circumstances, and you have a desperate Opposition catching at straws. Such desperation is bound to be counter-productive. Winning back the peoples’ trust through deception and deceit, and not through a meaningful engagement and an alternative programme, can only bring the opposition caravan to a spluttering halt.