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CBI files charge sheet in Dhanbad judge murder case, still probing ‘conspiracy’
Dhanbad judge death case: The first charge sheet filed by CBI was timed to bar the two men arrested for the alleged murder of judge Uttam Anand from getting bail after 90 days of their arrest. A supplementary charge sheet will be filed later on the “larger conspiracy”, a CBI officer said.
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday filed a charge sheet for the death of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand, accusing the two men on an autorickshaw of “deliberately” mowing on July 28 morning when he was on his morning walk, people familiar with the development said.
The charge sheet has been filed before 90 days, the stipulated time to file a charge sheet in a criminal case after the accused’s arrest, so that the two men arrested for the 49-year-old judge’s murder, Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma, do not get default bail, said an officer who didn’t want to be named.
They have been charged for the murder of Uttam Anand while “further investigations into the larger conspiracy” will continue, said the officer cited above,
A special investigation team of CBI was probing the case and questioned several hundred people. A lie detector test and a psychoanalysis test was also conducted on the duo.
The judge was fatally knocked down by an autorickshaw when he was on a morning jog in Dhanbad. The Supreme Court and the Jharkhand high court had taken suo motu cognisance of the hit-and-run incident in which the judge was killed after CCTV footage showed a three-wheeler swerving on an empty road to hit down as he was jogging.
The Supreme Court later also expressed distress over rising incidents of physical and verbal attacks on judges throughout the country.
CCTV footage showed that he was jogging on one side of a wide road at the Randhir Verma Chowk when the autorickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled the scene.
The CBI has recreated the scene, while experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) have also collected evidence from the spot.
The case was handed over by the Jharkhand government to CBI, which dispatched a 20-member team led by investigator VK Shukla under the overall supervision of joint director Sharad Aggarwal.
