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Jharkhand HC directs WhatsApp to file a reply in judge’s murder case
The CBI informed the bench about a WhatsApp chat they have come across and access to the complete chat history would help the probe further, a lawyer who was part of the proceedings said.
The Jharkhand High Court on Friday directed the country head of social media platform WhatsApp to file its reply in Judge Uttam Anand’s mysterious hit-and-run-murder case after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the incident informed the court they needed the complete history of a WhatsApp chat they have come across as part of their investigation.
The division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, which is monitoring the probe in the Dhanbad additional district judge’s death case on a weekly basis, directed the social media platform to provide the ‘chat history’ as sought by the central probe agency.
The CBI informed the bench about a WhatsApp chat they have come across and access to the complete chat history would help the probe further, a lawyer who was part of the proceedings said. The court then directed the country head of the social media platform to be made a defendent with a direction to file a reply, the lawyer added.
The 49-year-old additional district judge Uttam Anand died after being hit by an auto-rickshaw in Dhanbad on July 28 last year when he was out for a morning walk and the incident was captured on CCTV.
The CBI, which is probing the case under the Jharkhand High Court, had filed a chargesheet in the case on October 20 last year, charging Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma, the two known occupants of the auto rickshaw at the time of the accident, for murder and destruction of evidence.
The division bench has, however, raised questions over the probe status as the central agency is yet to establish the motive of the two accused behind the murder.
