The Supreme Court on Friday will hear pleas by three petitioners seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra will be hearing the petitions.

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The apex court, during the last hearing on 22 January, had dubbed as “serious” the issues raised in the pleas but had castigated senior lawyer Dushyant Dave for casting aspersions on BJP president Amit Shah in the case.

The two petitions which are pending in the apex court have been filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and Maharashtra-based journalist BS Lone.

Later, an application was filed by former Navy chief L Ramdas seeking an independent inquiry by a panel of retired apex court judges and former police officers into Loya’s death.

Meanwhile, political parties and more prominently the Congress has been raking up the issue of Loya’s death outside the judicial forum and demanding an independent probe.

Earlier, the Congress party raised more questions over the death of judge B H Loya and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the case.

The Congress said the SIT should not have officers from the CBI and the NIA and added that if there is no proper probe into the matter, the party will go to “each village of the country”.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal alleged that “democracy is in danger” and judges, lawyers and even media personnel were not safe these days. He also questioned why the Bombay High Court did not lodge an FIR following Loya’s death.

Special CBI judge Loya, who was handling the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, died of a heart attack in November 2014 in Nagpur. Later, political parties, including the Congress, alleged that he died in mysterious circumstance and demanded an investigation into it.

The issue of Loya’s death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it and its link to the Sohrabuddin case.

However,  Loya’s son had on 14 January said that his father had died of natural causes and they are not seeking any probe on it.