RANCHI
The Jharkhand High Court Friday pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the Dhanbad judge’s death case, observing that the probe agency has failed to come up with any evidence to back the murder charge made against the two persons arrested in the case and has also kept the court in dark by not informing it before filing the charge sheet.
The observations were made during the weekly hearing before the division bench of chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and justice Sujeet Narayan Prasad on the mysterious death of Dhanbad’s additional judge Uttam Anand in July this year.
CBI on Wednesday filed its first charge sheet in the case, charging the two arrested accused under Sections 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder and other offences.
Ananad was mowed down by an auto rickshaw on July 28 this year when he was out for his morning walk. Two people allegedly involved in the alleged killing, Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma, were arrested by Jharkhand police and the vehicle involved was seized.
Lawyers who participated in the hearing n HC on Friday said the bench came down heavily on the central agency for not making any major headway in the investigation.
“The bench observed that neither the agency took the court into confidence nor did it attach a copy of the charge sheet along with the status report and it was not expected from a professional agency like the CBI. It also said the agency has been filing a stereotyped report every week. The agency has failed to even provide any evidence to establish the motive behind the murder charge. This could ultimately help the two accused,” a lawyer said.
{{/usCountry}}“The bench observed that neither the agency took the court into confidence nor did it attach a copy of the charge sheet along with the status report and it was not expected from a professional agency like the CBI. It also said the agency has been filing a stereotyped report every week. The agency has failed to even provide any evidence to establish the motive behind the murder charge. This could ultimately help the two accused,” a lawyer said.
{{/usCountry}}CBI, in its submission, said it filed the charge sheet in consultation with its headquarter and is investigating further to establish the motive and unravel the conspiracy behind the murder. It said it would submit a detailed report on the next hearing on October 29.
The court observed that if the headquarter was consulted before filing of chargsheet, then the bench would better summon the CBI director after seeing the report next week and seek requisite clarifications from the top officer himself.