Police officer associated with judge Loya death case dead following heart attack

Five days after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that judge Loya death case may be reopened, a police officer who was given responsibility to contact Loya’s family after his death, suffered a massive heart attack and died subsequently on January 13 in Osmanabad.

The police officer, Ravindra Bharat Thorat, was posted with the Osmanabad unit anticorruption bureau (ACB) at the time of his death.

Barve, then state intelligence chief, had concluded that Judge Loya had died of a cardiac arrest on December 1, 2014, in the presence of his colleagues from the judicial fraternity.

As per sources, Thorat was also responsible for carrying sensitive files and documents pertaining to Loya’s death to the Supreme Court when he was working as a member of Barve team.

As per reports, Thorat complained of uneasiness on January 13, following which he was referred to a Solapur-based super specialty hospital, but his condition deteriorated on the way and he died in the hospital.

It may be noted that Thorat had worked on judge Loya’s death case at two different stages. In 2014, immediately after Loya’s death, Thorat was handed over the responsibility to contact Loya’s family. Thorat had reportedly concluded that he could not contact the family as they went untraceable after his death.

In the second instance, former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavsis constituted a team to investigate Loya’s death under present Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Barve. Thorat was part of Barve’s team.