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Seems Dhanbad judge was intentionally hit by auto, CBI tells Jharkhand HC
On July 28, judge Anand was brought dead to a hospital about an hour after he was hit by the auto rickshaw in Dhanbad when he was out on a morning walk. Appearing before the HC bench, the CBI informed the court that judge’s death was not an accident.
Dhanbad’s additional district judge Uttam Anand , who died in July after being run over by an auto-rickshaw, was hit intentionally, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed the Jharkhand high court on Thursday.
On July 28, judge Anand was brought dead to a hospital about an hour after he was hit by the auto rickshaw in Dhanbad when he was out on a morning walk. The two occupants of the three-wheeler, Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma, were subsequently arrested. The CCTV footage of the location showed the vehicle swerving seemingly deliberately to hit the judge from behind, officials involved in the case had said.
Appearing before the division bench of chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, CBI zonal director Sharad Agrawal informed the court that judge Anand’s death was not an accident, and submitted the weekly probe report as directed by the court.
Sources said the zonal director informed the court that they drew the conclusion on the basis of interrogation of the arrested accused, along with scientific investigation, but are yet to get concrete evidence for it.
The court then directed the CBI not to waste time and get behind the crime, as any time lost would be detrimental for investigation. It also questioned the probe agency as to why they have not been able to move beyond the two arrested occupants of the auto rickshaw involved in the alleged crime.
“The CBI officer informed court that one of the two arrested persons Lakhan Verma also has previous criminal record of mobile theft, and he has been trying to mislead the agency by changing his stand. The agency is interrogating the two accused for a breakthrough,” a source said.
Both the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident. The CBI took over the investigation from the SIT headed by an ADG rank officer of Jharkhand Police at the state government’s instance. The HC had ever since directed the central agency to provide probe status report every week.
