Pod Save the World - Introducing "Killing Justice"

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

When a judge in India dies of a heart attack, his passing barely makes the news. But when his niece approaches a journalist two years later, she shares a different story: that the circumstances around Judge Brijgopal Loya’s death have made his family doubt the official story. From Crooked Media and The Branch - Killing Justice investigates how one man’s death has become a lodestone for increasingly polarized politics in India.  Following the reporting and legal fallout that arise from this tip, Host Ravi Gupta examines the conflicting evidence and grapples with the broader implications a single night in the city of Nagpur has on the world’s largest democracy.You can hear the first 2 episodes of Killing Justice right now on Apple or Spotify. New episodes every Monday. For ad-free episodes, join the ‘Friends of the Pod’ community at crooked.com/friends.

Hey, it's Ben here. I'm excited to share the trailer for Killing Justice, Crooked's newest limited series in partnership with The Branch. In December 2014, a prominent Indian judge died at a wedding in Nagpur, India, of a heart attack. And at the time, his passing barely made the news. But when his niece approached a journalist two years later, she shared a different story. Killing justice is a fascinating investigative series about how one man's death became a focal point for the increasingly polarized politics in India, the world's largest democracy.

If you like what you hear, you can listen to the first two episodes in the killing justice feed right now or on Apple and Spotify. And for ad-free listening, join the friend of the pod community at crooked.com slash friends. I'll be speaking with the host Ravi Gupta

on Podsaid the World next week, so make sure you get caught up before that. My name is Ravi Gupta. I'm Indian American. emphasis on American. I was raised by my Polish mom in Staten Island, don't speak any Indian languages, and I've eaten less Indian food than most white people.

For most of my life, understanding the country my family came from was low on my to-do list. That is, until I began following a mystery. This looks like a Bollywood script. I haven't heard a crystal clear theory as to what happened that night. The story centered around the suspicious

death of a high-level judge in India. There were some very intense questions that Judge Loya's death left behind. There was no investigation. There's a possibility of poisoning and there's trauma applied to this person's head. Was Judge Loya not a part of the judiciary? Was Judge Loya not a part of the system?

Judge was set to rule in a major case that involved some of India's most powerful political figures. It's possible that he was under pressure. Nobody denies that. You can imagine, right? That it's never happened before in India, that the whole minister of a state has been investigated by the CBI

at the direction of the Supreme Court of India, right? When I finally went to India myself to try to understand what had happened, I found a lot more questions than answers. I was just getting a very hostile vibe from the get-go. There was like a gaggle of men in front who were asking me a lot of questions about what I was after.

He would not answer questions. Yeah. He would just not answer. I was drawn into the story for the mystery and the political intrigue. But as I've followed the twists and turns over the past year, I've realized this is about more than just one judge's death. It's about the future of Indian democracy. This clash, the clash between two ideas to the two concepts of India. Falsehood has become the hallmark of this government.

There is impunity, there's terrific impunity in India. Journalists are killed. If this is not going to stop hundreds of people, 100 more people will die. In this new series, I'll ask, is the world's largest democracy, even a democracy anymore? If they're willing to kill all these powerful people,

this is like a very crass thing to ask, but how are you still alive? I don't know. From crooked media and the branch, this is killing justice. Coming May 27th. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.